The older of Eli's two sons who officiated as priests in the tabernacle of Shiloh (1 Samuel 1:3). Hophni and his younger brother Phinehas are reproved as sons of Belial, and as rapacious and lustful (1 Samuel 2:12-17,22). Their misdeeds provoked the indignation of the people, and the divine curse was pronounced first by an unknown prophet and afterward by Samuel (1 Samuel 2:23-36, 3:11-14). They were both killed on the same day, in a battle between the Israelites and the Philistines (1 Samuel 4:11). The Talmudists do not agree as to the wickedness of both brothers: Rab concluded (Shab. 55b) that Phinehas was not guilty of any of the crimes mentioned, but that Hophni alone committed them; but R. Jonathan, quoted by R. Samuel b. Naḥmani (c.), declares that neither was wicked, and that the words in which the crimes are imputed to them in 1 Samuel 2:22 have a figurative meaning in this instance.