1 Samuel 2:33

Brenton's Septuagint

And if I do not destroy a man of thine from my altar, it shall be that his eyes may fail and his soul may perish; and every one that remains in thy house shall fall by the sword of men.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Any man from your family I do not cut off from my altar will bring grief and sadness to you. All your descendants will die violently.

Hebrew Names Version
The man of yours, [whom] I shall not cut off from my altar, [shall be] to consume your eyes, and to grieve your heart; and all the increase of your house shall die in the flower of their age.

King James Version
And the man of thine, whom I shall not cut off from mine altar, shall be to consume thine eyes, and to grieve thine heart: and all the increase of thine house shall die in the flower of their age.

Lexham English Bible
The only one I will not cut off from my altar is you. Rather, to cause your eyes to fail and to cause your soul to grieve, all the members of your household will die as men.

English Standard Version
The only one of you whom I shall not cut off from my altar shall be spared to weep his eyes out to grieve his heart, and all the descendants of your house shall die by the sword of men.

New Century Version
I will not totally cut off your family from my altar. But your eyes will cry and your heart be sad, because all your descendants will die.

New English Translation
Any one of you that I do not cut off from my altar, I will cause your eyes to fail and will cause you grief. All of those born to your family will die in the prime of life.

Amplified Bible
'Yet I will not cut off every man of yours from My altar; your eyes will fail from weeping and your soul will grieve, and all those born in your house will die as men [in the prime of life].

New American Standard Bible
'Yet I will not cut off every man of yours from My altar, so that your eyes will fail from weeping and your soul grieve, and all the increase of your house will die in the prime of life.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Neuerthelesse, I will not destroy euery one of thine fro mine altar, to make thine eyes to faile, and to make thine heart sorowfull: and all ye multitude of thine house shall die when they be men.

Legacy Standard Bible
Yet I will not cut off every man of yours from My altar so that your eyes will fail from weeping and your soul grieve, and all the increase of your house will be put to death in the prime of life.

Contemporary English Version
If I let anyone from your family be a priest, his life will be full of sadness and sorrow. But most of the men in your family will die a violent death!

Complete Jewish Bible
Still, I won't cut off every one of your men from my altar; because that would make your eyes grow dim, and you would waste away. Nevertheless, all your descendants will die young.

Darby Translation
And the man of thine [whom] I shall not cut off from mine altar, shall be to cause thine eyes to fail and to grieve thy soul; and all the increase of thy house shall die in their vigour.

Easy-to-Read Version
There is only one man I will save to serve as priest at my altar. He will live until his eyes wear out and his strength is gone. But all of your descendants will die by the sword.

George Lamsa Translation
And a man of you whom I shall not cut off from my altar shall be spared to sadden you and to grieve your heart; and all the increase of your house shall die in the flower of their age.

Good News Translation
Yet I will keep one of your descendants alive, and he will serve me as priest. But he will become blind and lose all hope, and all your other descendants will die a violent death.

Literal Translation
And the man of yours that I shall not cut off from My altar shall be to cause your eyes to fail, and to grieve your soul. And all the increase of your house shall die young men.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Yet wyll I not rote out euery man of the fro myne altare, but yt thyne eyes maye be consumed, & that yi soule maye be sory: & a greate multitude of thy house shal dye, whan they are come to be men.

American Standard Version
And the man of thine, whom I shall not cut off from mine altar, shall be to consume thine eyes, and to grieve thy heart; and all the increase of thy house shall die in the flower of their age.

Bible in Basic English
But one man of your family will not be cut off by my hand, and his eyes will be made dark, and grief will be in his heart: and all the offspring of your family will come to their end by the sword of men.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Neuerthelesse, I wyll not destroy euery one that come of thee from mine aulter, to make thine eyes to fayle, and to make thine heart sorowfull: And all they that be multiplied in thine house, shall dye [when they be] men.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Yet will I not cut off every man of thine from Mine altar, to make thine eyes to fail, and thy heart to languish; and all the increase of thy house shall die young men.

King James Version (1611)
And the man of thine, whom I shall not cut off from mine Altar, shall be to consume thine eyes, and to grieue thine heart: and all the increase of thine house shall die in the floure of their age.

English Revised Version
And the man of thine, [whom] I shall not cut off from mine altar, [shall be] to consume thine eyes, and to grieve thine heart: and all the increase of thine house shall die in the flower of their age.

Berean Standard Bible
And every one of you that I do not cut off from My altar, your eyes will fail and your heart will grieve. All your descendants will die in the prime of life.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Netheles Y schal not outerli take awei of thee a man fro myn auter, but that thin iyen faile, and thi soule faile; and greet part of thin hows schal die, whanne it schal come to mannus age.

Young's Literal Translation
`And the man I cut not off of thine from Mine altar, [is] to consume thine eyes, and to grieve thy soul; and all the increase of thy house do die men;

Update Bible Version
And the man of yours, [whom] I shall not cut off from my altar, [shall be] to consume your eyes, and to grieve your heart; and all the increase of your house shall die as men [before they become old].

Webster's Bible Translation
And the man of thine, [whom] I shall not cut off from my altar, [shall be] to consume thy eyes, and to grieve thy heart: and all the increase of thy house shall die in the flower of their age.

World English Bible
The man of yours, [whom] I shall not cut off from my altar, [shall be] to consume your eyes, and to grieve your heart; and all the increase of your house shall die in the flower of their age.

New King James Version
But any of your men whom I do not cut off from My altar shall consume your eyes and grieve your heart. And all the descendants of your house shall die in the flower of their age.

New Living Translation
The few not cut off from serving at my altar will survive, but only so their eyes can go blind and their hearts break, and their children will die a violent death.

New Life Bible
But I will not destroy every man of yours from My altar. Some will be left to cry and be filled with sorrow. But all the children of your family will die in their best years.

New Revised Standard
The only one of you whom I shall not cut off from my altar shall be spared to weep out his eyes and grieve his heart; all the members of your household shall die by the sword.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
But, any man of thine whom I may not cut off from mine altar, it shall be - to consume his eyes, and grieve his soul; Howbeit, all the multitude of thy house, shall die, by the sword of men.

Douay-Rheims Bible
However, I will not altogether take away a man of thee from my altar: but that thy eyes may faint, and thy soul be spent: and a great part of thy house shall die, when they come to man’s estate.

Revised Standard Version
The man of you whom I shall not cut off from my altar shall be spared to weep out his eyes and grieve his heart; and all the increase of your house shall die by the sword of men.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
'Yet I will not cut off every man of yours from My altar so that your eyes will fail from weeping and your soul grieve, and all the increase of your house will die in the prime of life.

Contextual Overview

²⁷ And a man of God came to Heli, and said, Thus says the Lord, I plainly revealed myself to the house of thy father, when they were servants in Egypt to the house of Pharao. ²⁸ And I chose the house of thy father out of all the tribes of Israel to minister to me in the priest’s office, to go up to my altar, and to burn incense, and to wear an ephod. And I gave to the house of thy father all the offerings by fire of the children of Israel for food. ²⁹ And wherefore hast thou looked upon my incense-offering and my meat-offering with a shameless eye, and hast honoured thy sons above me, so that they should bless themselves with the first-fruits of every sacrifice of Israel before me? ³⁰ Therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel, I said, Thy house and the house of thy father shall pass before me for ever: but now the Lord says, That be far from me; for I will only honour them that honour me, and he that sets me at nought shall be despised. ³¹ Behold, the days come when I will destroy thy seed and the seed of thy father’s house. ³² And thou shalt not have an old man in my house for ever. ³³ And if I do not destroy a man of thine from my altar, it shall be that his eyes may fail and his soul may perish; and every one that remains in thy house shall fall by the sword of men. ³⁴ And this which shall come upon thy two sons Ophni and Phinees shall be a sign to thee; in one day they shall both die. ³⁵ And I will raise up to myself a faithful priest, who shall do all that is in my heart and in my soul; and I will build him a sure house, and he shall walk before my Christ for ever. ³⁶ And it shall come to pass that he that survives in thy house, shall come to do obeisance before him for a little piece of silver, saying, Put me into one of thy priest’s offices to eat bread.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

to consume: 1 Samuel 22:21-23, 1 Kings 1:7, 1 Kings 1:19, 1 Kings 2:26, 1 Kings 2:27, Matthew 2:16-18

in the flower: etc. Heb. men

Reciprocal: Genesis 44:34 - lest Leviticus 26:16 - consume 1 Samuel 22:20 - escaped Psalms 78:64 - priests Jeremiah 20:4 - thine Amos 6:9 - if 1 Corinthians 7:36 - the flower

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And the man of thine,..... Of his family, which should spring from him: whom I shall not cut off from mine altar: from serving there: who though he shall not be an high priest, but a common priest, as all the descendants of Aaron were,

shall be to consume thine eyes, and to grieve thine heart; that is, the eyes and heart of his posterity; who though they should see of their family ministering in the priest's office, yet should make so poor a figure on account of their outward meanness and poverty, or because of their want of wisdom, and intellectual endowments, or because of their scandalous lives, that it would fill their hearts with grief and sorrow, and their eyes with tears, so that their eyes would fail, and be consumed, and their hearts be broken:

and all the increase of thine house shall die in the flower of their age; or "die men" k; grown men, not children, when it would not be so great an affliction to part with them; but when at man's estate, in the prime of their days, perhaps about thirty years of age, the time when the priests entered upon their office to do all the work of it; the Targum is,

"shall be killed young men:''

it is more than once said in the Talmud l, that there was a family in Jerusalem, the men of which died at eighteen years of age; they came and informed Juchanan ben Zaccai of it; he said to them, perhaps of the family of Eli are ye, as it is said, 1 Samuel 2:33.

k ימותו אנשים "morientur viri", Montanus, Tigurine version; "morientur virile aetate", Junius Tremellius, Piscator so V. L. l T. Bab. Roshhashanah, fol. 18. 1. & Yebamot, fol. 105. 1.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The meaning is explained by 1 Samuel 2:36. Those who are not cut off in the flower of their youth shall be worse off than those who are, for they shall have to beg their bread. (Compare Jeremiah 22:10.)

Thine eyes ... thine heart - For a similar personification of the tribe or family see Judges 1:2-4.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 1 Samuel 2:33. And the man of thine — Of this passage Calmet observes: "The posterity of Eli possessed the high priesthood to the time of Solomon; and even when that dynasty was transferred to another family, God preserved that of Eli, not to render it more happy, but to punish it by seeing the prosperity of its enemies, to the end that it might see itself destitute and despised. This shows the depth of the judgments of God and the grandeur of his justice, which extends even to distant generations, and manifests itself to sinners both in life and death; both in their own disgrace, and in the prosperity of their enemies."