But as soon as
these begin to occur, the priests immediately appear. Thus we find
Eli and his sons at the old house of God belonging to the tribe of
Ephraim at Shiloh. Eli holds a very exalted position, his sons are
depicted as high and mighty men, who deal with the worshippers not
directly but through a servant, and show arrogant disregard of their
duties to Jehovah. The office is hereditary, and the priesthood
already very numerous. At least in the time of Saul, after they had
migrated from Shiloh to Nob, on account of the destruction by the
Philistines of the temple at the former place, they numbered more
than eighty-five men, who, however, are not necessarily proper
blood-relations of Eli, although reckoning themselves as belonging
to his clan (1Samuel xxii. 11). /1/
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1. In 1Samuel i. seq., indeed, we read only of Eli and his two
sons and one servant, and even David and Solomon appear to have
had only a priest or two at the chief temple. Are we to suppose
that Doeg, single-handed, could have made away with eighty-five
men ?
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One sanctuary more is referred to towards the close of the period
of the Judges,--that at Dan beside the source of the Jordan.
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