SEV Biblia, Chapter 4:18
Y aconteció que cuando él hizo mención del arca de Dios, Elí cayó hacia atrás de la silla junto al lugar de la puerta, y se le quebró la cerviz, y murió; porque era hombre viejo y pesado. Y había juzgado a Israel cuarenta años.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - 1 Samuel 4:18
Verse 18. When he made mention of the ark of God] Eli bore all the relation till the messenger came to this solemn word; he had trembled before for the ark, and now, hearing that it was captured, he was transfixed with grief, fell down from his seat, and dislocated his neck! Behold the judgments of God! But shall we say that this man, however remiss in the education of his children, and criminal in his indulgence towards his profligate sons, which arose more from the easiness of his disposition than from a desire to encourage vice, is gone to perdition? God forbid! No man ever died with such benevolent and religious feelings, and yet perished. He had judged Israel forty years] Instead of forty years, the Septuagint has here eikosi eth, twenty years. All the other versions, as well as the Hebrew text, have forty years.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 18. And it came to pass, when he made mention of the ark of God , etc.] Of the taking of that, it struck him to the heart, and killed him; the rest he bore tolerably well, the flight of Israel before the Philistines, the great slaughter made of them, the death of his two sons; but the taking of the ark was so dreadful to him, that he could not support under it: that he fell from off the seat backward, by the side of the gate ; which confirms the sense of ( 1 Samuel 4:13) though whether it was the gate of his own house, or of the tabernacle, or of the city is not certain; the latter is most probable: it seems the seat on which he sat had no back to it, and might be placed only for present convenience: and his neck brake ; the back part of it, the “vertebrae” of it, which has its name in Hebrew from the several joints in it: and he died ; not through the breaking of his neck, for it is very probable he died directly upon hearing the ark was taken, and which was the reason of his falling backward, and that brake his neck: for he was an old man, and heavy ; full of flesh, a very fat man, and so fell heavy, which occasioned the breaking of his neck: and he had judged Israel forty years ; had governed them in the capacity both of an high priest and judge, so that he must enter on his government when fifty eight years of age; the Septuagint version has it very wrongly twenty years. According to the Jews f90 , he died on the tenth of Ijar, answering to part of April and May, and his two sons and the ark taken; for which a fast was kept on it.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 12-18 - The defeat of the army was very grievous to Eli as a judge; the tiding of the death of his two sons, to whom he had been so indulgent, an who, as he had reason to fear, died impenitent, touched him as father; yet there was a greater concern on his spirit. And when the messenger concluded his story with, "The ark of God is taken," he is struck to the heart, and died immediately. A man may die miserably, ye not die eternally; may come to an untimely end, yet the end be peace.
Original Hebrew
ויהי 1961 כהזכירו 2142 את 853 ארון 727 האלהים 430 ויפל 5307 מעל 5921 הכסא 3678 אחרנית 322 בעד 1157 יד 3027 השׁער 8179 ותשׁבר 7665 מפרקתו 4665 וימת 4191 כי 3588 זקן 2204 האישׁ 376 וכבד 3515 והוא 1931 שׁפט 8199 את 853 ישׂראל 3478 ארבעים 705 שׁנה׃ 8141
