The fraught moment
Before
it all begins
it all ends
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This chapter continues where the previous one closed, reiterating and amplifying the prophecy regarding the fall of the House of Eli.
As in the previous chapter, Samuel and the sons of Eli are repeatedly juxtaposed, in an implicit yet insistent link. Every description of the sins of Eli's sons is bookended by descriptions of Samuel's virtue; Samuel here becomes Eli's "son", after the two biological sons fail so completely. He is the beloved usurper, stepping into the place of the rejected priests. In this chapter, Samuel's linkage with the destruction of Hofni and Pinhas becomes more explicit, as he actually speaks the words of doom. With the rise of the "naar" (youth) Samuel, Eli's "nearim" fall.
Their fate was already been inscribed with the previous chapter's prophecy. What this chapter adds is the element of time. Samuel hears God speak "on that very day," and prophesies about "that very day" that will bring destruction that lasts "forever." A key word of the chapter is terem--before, not yet. The light of God has not yet gone out; Samuel has not yet heard God voice, he does not yet know God. We stand at the cusp, in the expectant before. The silence that precedes the storm that will end Eli; before Samuel regularly communes with God.
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