Lectionary Calendar
Thursday, July 17th, 2025
the Week of Proper 10 / Ordinary 15
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Read the Bible

New Living Translation

1 Samuel 4:15

who was ninety-eight years old and blind.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Ark;   Blindness;   Eli;   Judgments;   Longevity;   Parents;   Thompson Chain Reference - Blindness;   Dimness of Vision;   Eli;   Long Life;   Longevity;   Old Age;   Vision;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Ark of the Covenant;   Eli;   Philistines;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Lord's Name Taken in Vain;   Prayer;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Blind;   Eli;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Philistines, the;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Heart;   Philistines;   Samuel, Books of;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Hophni ;   Phinehas ;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Eli;   Hophni;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Eli;  

Encyclopedias:

- Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia - Samuel the Prophet;   International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Blindness;   Eyes, Diseases of the;   Kitto Biblical Cyclopedia - Blindness;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Eye;   Ichabod;   Iyyar;  

Devotionals:

- Every Day Light - Devotion for March 30;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
At that time Eli was ninety-eight years old, and his eyes didn’t move because he couldn’t see.
Hebrew Names Version
Now `Eli was ninety-eight years old; and his eyes were set, so that he could not see.
King James Version
Now Eli was ninety and eight years old; and his eyes were dim, that he could not see.
Lexham English Bible
Now Eli was ninety-eight years old and his eyes stayed fixed ahead and he was not able to see.
English Standard Version
Now Eli was ninety-eight years old and his eyes were set so that he could not see.
New Century Version
Eli was now ninety-eight years old, and he was blind.
New English Translation
Now Eli was ninety-eight years old and his eyes looked straight ahead; he was unable to see.
Amplified Bible
Now Eli was ninety-eight years old; his eyes were dim so that he could not see.
New American Standard Bible
Now Eli was ninety-eight years old, and his eyes were fixed and he could not see.
Geneva Bible (1587)
(Nowe Eli was fourescore and eighteene yeere olde, and his eyes were dimme that hee could not see)
Legacy Standard Bible
Now Eli was ninety-eight years old, and his eyes had set so that he could not see.
Complete Jewish Bible
‘Eli was ninety-eight years old, and his gaze was fixed, because he was blind.
Darby Translation
Now Eli was ninety-eight years old; and his eyes were set, that he could not see.
George Lamsa Translation
Now Eli was seventy-eight years old; and his eyes were dim so that he could not see.
Good News Translation
(Eli was now ninety-eight years old and almost completely blind.)
Literal Translation
And Eli was ninety eight years old, and his eyes were set, and he was not able to see.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
(As for Eli, he was fourescore and eightene yeare olde, and his eyes were dymme, so that he coulde not se.)
American Standard Version
Now Eli was ninety and eight years old; and his eyes were set, so that he could not see.
Bible in Basic English
Now Eli was ninety-eight years old, and his eyes were fixed so that he was not able to see.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Eli was .xcviii. yeres olde, & his sight failed, him that he could not see.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Now Eli was ninety and eight years old; and his eyes were set, that he could not see.
King James Version (1611)
Now Eli was ninetie and eight yeeres old, and his eyes were dimme, that he could not see.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Now Heli was ninety years old, and his eyes were fixed, and he saw not.
English Revised Version
Now Eli was ninety and eight years old; and his eyes were set, that he could not see.
Berean Standard Bible
Now Eli was ninety-eight years old, and his gaze was fixed because he could not see.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Forsothe Heli was of foure score yeer and eiytene, and hise iyen dasiwiden, and he myyte not se.
Young's Literal Translation
And Eli is a son of ninety and eight years, and his eyes have stood, and he hath not been able to see.
Update Bible Version
Now Eli was ninety and eight years old; and his eyes were set, so that he could not see.
Webster's Bible Translation
Now Eli was ninety and eight years old; and his eyes were dim, that he could not see.
World English Bible
Now Eli was ninety-eight years old; and his eyes were set, so that he could not see.
New King James Version
Eli was ninety-eight years old, and his eyes were so dim that he could not see.
New Life Bible
Now Eli was ninety-eight years old, and his eyes were weak so that he could not see.
New Revised Standard
Now Eli was ninety-eight years old and his eyes were set, so that he could not see.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Now, Eli, was ninety-eight years old; and his eyes were fixed, that he could not see.
Douay-Rheims Bible
Now Heli was ninety and eight years old, and his eyes were dim, and he could not see.
Revised Standard Version
Now Eli was ninety-eight years old and his eyes were set, so that he could not see.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
Now Eli was ninety-eight years old, and his eyes were set so that he could not see.

Contextual Overview

12 A man from the tribe of Benjamin ran from the battlefield and arrived at Shiloh later that same day. He had torn his clothes and put dust on his head to show his grief. 13 Eli was waiting beside the road to hear the news of the battle, for his heart trembled for the safety of the Ark of God. When the messenger arrived and told what had happened, an outcry resounded throughout the town. 14 "What is all the noise about?" Eli asked. The messenger rushed over to Eli, 15 who was ninety-eight years old and blind. 16 He said to Eli, "I have just come from the battlefield—I was there this very day." "What happened, my son?" Eli demanded. 17 "Israel has been defeated by the Philistines," the messenger replied. "The people have been slaughtered, and your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were also killed. And the Ark of God has been captured." 18 When the messenger mentioned what had happened to the Ark of God, Eli fell backward from his seat beside the gate. He broke his neck and died, for he was old and overweight. He had been Israel's judge for forty years.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

ninety: 1 Samuel 3:2, Psalms 90:10

and his eyes: Genesis 27:1

were dim: Heb. stood

Reciprocal: Genesis 48:10 - the eyes 1 Kings 14:4 - for his eyes Psalms 71:18 - Now Ecclesiastes 12:2 - the sun

Cross-References

Genesis 4:24
If someone who kills Cain is punished seven times, then the one who kills me will be punished seventy-seven times!"
Leviticus 26:18
"And if, in spite of all this, you still disobey me, I will punish you seven times over for your sins.
Leviticus 26:21
"If even then you remain hostile toward me and refuse to obey me, I will inflict disaster on you seven times over for your sins.
Leviticus 26:24
then I myself will be hostile toward you. I will personally strike you with calamity seven times over for your sins.
Leviticus 26:28
then I will give full vent to my hostility. I myself will punish you seven times over for your sins.
1 Kings 16:7
The message from the Lord against Baasha and his family came through the prophet Jehu son of Hanani. It was delivered because Baasha had done what was evil in the Lord 's sight (just as the family of Jeroboam had done), and also because Baasha had destroyed the family of Jeroboam. The Lord 's anger was provoked by Baasha's sins.
Psalms 59:11
Don't kill them, for my people soon forget such lessons; stagger them with your power, and bring them to their knees, O Lord our shield.
Psalms 79:12
O Lord, pay back our neighbors seven times for the scorn they have hurled at you.
Proverbs 6:31
But if he is caught, he must pay back seven times what he stole, even if he has to sell everything in his house.
Ezekiel 9:4
He said to him, "Walk through the streets of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of all who weep and sigh because of the detestable sins being committed in their city."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Now Eli was ninety eight years old,.... Which is very properly observed, he being now come to the end of his days, and which also accounts for his blindness after mentioned:

and his eyes were dim, that he could not see; could not see the messenger, and read in his countenance, and perceive by his clothes rent, and earth on his head, that he was a bringer of bad tidings; or his eyes each of them "stood" h; were fixed and immovable, as the eyes of blind men be. In 1 Samuel 3:2 it is said, "his eyes began to wax dim"; but here that they "were" become dim; and there might be some years between that time and this, for Samuel then was very young, but now more grown up: though Procopius Gazaeus thinks that Eli was then ninety eight years of age, and that the affair there related was just before his death; but it rather appears to be some time before.

h קמה "stetit", Montanus; "stabant", Tigurine version.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Dim - Rather, “set.” The word is quite different from that so rendered in 1 Samuel 3:2. The phrase seems to express the “fixed” state of the blind eye, which is not affected by the light. Eli’s blindness, while it made him alive to sounds, prevented his seeing the ripped garments and dust-besprinkled head of the messenger of bad news.


 
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