1 Samuel 2:17

1Sa 2:17 Wherefore the sin of the young men was very great before the LORD: for men abhorred the offering of the LORD.

Ver. 17. Wherefore the sin of the young men was very great.] The greater because they were uncounsellable, ac ne moniti quidem ab ista perversitate desistebant; but became evil examples to God’s people, who might have desired the like of them, that one did once of a bad living preacher - viz., to point him out a nearer way to heaven than that he had taught in his sermons: for he went not that way himself.

For men abhorred the offering of the Lord.] Which yet was a great sin in them so to do, {1Sa 2:24} likeas it is in those now-a-days that separate from our churches because of the ill lives of some of our ministers. It is a true saying of a reverend divine, {a} The garden may be watered through a wooden gutter; the sun give comfortable light through a sluttish window; the field may be well sowed through a dirty hand; the bell call us to church, though it never enter itself but by the sound; the well may yield excellent water, though it have much mud: so may wicked ministers perform the true service of Christ, &c.

{a} Abbot.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Seeing the horrible abuse thereof.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 17. Wherefore the sin of the young men was very great] That is, Hophni and Phinehas, the sons of Eli.

Men abhorred the offering] As the people saw that the priests had no piety, and that they acted as if there was no God; they despised God's service, and became infidels.

A national priesthood, when the foundation is right, may be a great blessing; but if the priesthood becomes corrupt, though the foundation itself stand sure, the corruption of the national manners will be the unavoidable consequence.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(17) The sin of the young men was very great.—Grave peccatum sacerdotum ob scandalurn datum laicis (“the sin of the priests was a great one, because it put a stumbling-block in the way of the people”).—A. Lapide, quoted by Wordsworth. Religion was being brought into general disrepute through the conduct of its leading ministers; was it likely that piety, justice, and purity would be honoured and loved in the land of Israel when the whole ritual of the sacrifices was openly scoffed at in the great sanctuary of the people by the chief priests of their faith?

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

17. the young men] Hophni and Phinehas.

men abhorred] Rather, the men despised, or, brought into contempt the offering of Jehovah. The Sept. omits the men. Corruption in the priesthood begets profanity in the people. Cp. Mal_2:8-9. “They made it vile in the eyes of the people by shewing how vile it was in their eyes.”

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But Samuel ministered before the Lord,.... The ministration of Samuel, though a child, is observed both before and after the account of the ill behaviour and wickedness of Eli's sons; partly to the shame and disgrace of them, and as serving to aggravate their sin, and make it appear the more black and heinous; and partly to his honour and reputation, that he was not corrupted and turned aside from God by their evil practices. The phrase here used is different from that in Sa1 2:11 there he is said to minister before Eli, under his direction and guidance, but here before the Lord; being now engaged in higher services, and which he could perform without the assistance of Eli, as in the presence of God more immediately; it seems to have respect to him when more grown in age, stature, knowledge, and experience, though here related: yet still being "a child"; not got out of his childhood, or arrived to manhood:

girded with a linen ephod; such as priests used to wear, but not Levites in common, nor extraordinary persons on extraordinary occasions, see Sa1 22:18. This seems to be a peculiar favour, and a special honour which Eli granted to Samuel when so very young, on account of the grace of God bestowed on him in a wonderful manner; and because brought up in the tabernacle as a holy person, and a Nazarite; and because his birth was foretold, and he asked of God, as his name signified, as Procopius Gazaeus observes.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The offering of the Lord - Minchah, here in the general sense of “gift or offering” to God (compare Mal 1:10-11; Mal 3:3). In its restricted sense, it is used of the meat offerings, the unbloody sacrifices, and is then coupled with bloody sacrifices, sacrifices of slain beasts. (See 1Sa 2:29.)

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Lord. People, seeing that the law was not observed, refrained from presenting victims. (Menochius) --- They are but too apt to follow the bad example of their teachers. (Haydock) --- Hence God punishes the smallest faults of his ministers, with great severity, since they withdraw people from his service, by their scandalous behaviour, and are guilty of a more horrid sacrilege than those who laid violent hands on the Lord of majesty. (St. Bernard, ser. i.) Nothing brings a greater discredit on religion. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

The sin of the young men was very great; because they violently took away both man’s and God’s dues, and this before their time, and that with manifest contempt of God and men; and all this merely for the gratifying of their sensual appetite.

Before the Lord, i.e. even in the place of God’s special presence, where he saw and observed all their miscarriages; which argues the height of impiety and imprudence.

Men abhorred the offering of the Lord; they neglected and abhorred the practice of carrying up sacrifices to be offered, which they knew would be so grossly abused; and which, as they might think, would be rejected and abhorred by God himself; and therefore they would not contribute to the priests’ sin, and the corruption of God’s worship, but judged it better to neglect the thing, than to expose it to the priests’ depravation; wherein yet they erred, as we see, 1Sa 2:21.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

17. The young men — Eli’s sons, Hophni and Phinehas.

Men abhorred the offering of the Lord — The conduct of these young men brought reproach upon the whole sacred service; and, indeed, there is nothing that tends more directly to bring religion itself into contempt, and to multiply infidels and scoffers, than open wickedness in the ministers of the altar.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Abhorred - But we know the validity and efficacy of the sacraments does not depend on the goodness of those that administer them. It was therefore folly and sin in the people, to think the worse of God's institutions. But it was the much greater sin of the priests, that gave them occasion so to do.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

They had disgraced. Meaning despised.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.