1 Samuel 4:15

15 Now Eli was ninety and eight years old; and his eyes were set, so that he could not see.

1 Samuel 4:15 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 4:15

Now Eli was ninety eight years old
Which is very properly observed, he being now come to the end of his days, and which also accounts for his blindness after mentioned:

and his eyes were dim, that he could not see;
could not see the messenger, and read in his countenance, and perceive by his clothes rent, and earth on his head, that he was a bringer of bad tidings; or his eyes each of them "stood" ^F8; were fixed and immovable, as the eyes of blind men be. In ( 1 Samuel 3:2 ) it is said, "his eyes began to wax dim"; but here that they "were" become dim; and there might be some years between that time and this, for Samuel then was very young, but now more grown up: though Procopius Gazaeus thinks that Eli was then ninety eight years of age, and that the affair there related was just before his death; but it rather appears to be some time before.

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FOOTNOTES:

F8 (hmq) "stetit", Montanus; "stabant", Tigurine version.

1 Samuel 4:15 In-Context

13 And when he came, lo, Eli was sitting upon his seat by the wayside watching; for his heart trembled for the ark of God. And when the man came into the city, and told it, all the city cried out.

14 And when Eli heard the noise of the crying, he said, What meaneth the noise of this tumult? And the man hasted, and came and told Eli.

15 Now Eli was ninety and eight years old; and his eyes were set, so that he could not see.

16 And the man said unto Eli, I am he that came out of the army, and I fled to-day out of the army. And he said, How went the matter, my son?

17 And he that brought the tidings answered and said, Israel is fled before the Philistines, and there hath been also a great slaughter among the people, and thy two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God is taken.