³⁰ Therefore the Lord God of Israel says: ^(A)‘I said indeed that your house and the house of your father would walk before Me forever.’ But now the Lord says: ^(B)‘Far be it from Me; for those who honor Me I will honor, and ^(C)those who despise Me shall be lightly esteemed.

^13 (A)For I have told him that I will ^(B)judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knows, because ^(C)his sons made themselves vile, and he ^(D)did not ^[a]restrain them. ¹⁴ And therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house ^(E)shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever.”

¹⁷ So the messenger answered and said, “Israel has fled before the Philistines, and there has been a great slaughter among the people. Also your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead; and the ark of God has been captured.”

¹⁸ Then it happened, when he made mention of the ark of God, that Eli fell off the seat backward by the side of the gate; and his neck was broken and he died, for the man was old and heavy. And he had judged Israel forty years.