Eli Honors His Sons Above Yahweh

²⁷ Then ^(A)a man of God came to Eli and said to him, “Thus says Yahweh, ‘^(B)Did I not indeed reveal Myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt, enslaved to Pharaoh’s house? ^28 (C)And did I not choose them from all the tribes of Israel to be My priests, to go up to My altar, to burn incense, to carry an ephod before Me; and did I not ^(D)give to the house of your father all the fire offerings of the sons of Israel? ²⁹ Why do you ^(E)kick at My sacrifice and at My offering ^(F)which I have commanded in My ^(G)habitation, and ^(H)honor your sons above Me, by making yourselves fat with the ^[a]choicest of every offering of My people Israel?’ ³⁰ Therefore Yahweh, the God of Israel, declares, ‘^(I)I did indeed say that your house and the house of your father should walk before Me forever’; but now Yahweh declares, ‘Far be it from Me—for ^(J)those who honor Me I will honor, and those ^(K)who despise Me will be cursed. ³¹ Behold, ^(L)the days are coming, and I will break your ^[b]strength and the ^[c]strength of your father’s house so that there will not be an old man in your house. ³² And you will look upon ^(M)the distress of My habitation, in spite of all the good that ^[d]I do for Israel; and an ^(N)old man will not be in your house all the days. ³³ Yet I will not cut off every man of yours from My altar ^[e]so that your eyes will fail from weeping and your soul grieve, and all the increase of your house will be put to death ^[f]in the prime of life. ³⁴ Now this will be ^(O)the sign to you which will come concerning your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas: ^(P)on the same day both of them will be put to death. ³⁵ But ^(Q)I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest who will do according to what is in My heart and in My soul; and ^(R)I will build him a faithful house, and he will walk before ^(S)My anointed always. ³⁶ And it will be that everyone who is left in your house will come and bow down to him for a ^[g]piece of silver or a loaf of bread and say, “Please ^[h]assign me to one of the priest’s offices so that I may eat a piece of bread.”’”