31 Behold, the days come, that I will cut off your arm, and the arm of your father's house, that there shall not be an old man in your house.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
I will cut off thine arm - A strong phrase for breaking down the strength and power, of which the arm is the instrument in man (compare Zac 11:17). See 1-Samuel 2:33.
I will cut off thine arm - I will destroy the strength, power, and influence of thy family.
Behold, the days come, that I will cut off thine (x) arm, and the arm of thy father's house, that there shall not be an old man in thine house.
(x) Thy power and authority.
Behold, the days come,.... Or, are coming (g); and will quickly come, in a very little time the things, after threatened, began to take place, even in the days of Eli's sons, and the whole was accomplished in about eighty years after:
that I will cut off thine arm, and the arm of thy father's house: that is, the strength of him and them, as the Targum, the strength of a man for doing business lying in his arm; meaning by it not long life, as Kimchi, who concludes this sense from what follows; but rather power and authority, or the exercise of the office of high priest, which gave him and his family great esteem and power; or it may be best of all, his children, which are the strength of a man, and the support of his family, see Genesis 49:3
that there shall not be an old man in thine house; as there were none when he died, and his two sons, the same day; and the children they left were very young, and Ahitub, who was one of them, could not die an old man, since Ahimelech his son was priest in the time of Saul, who with eighty five priests were slain by his order; and Abiathar his son was deprived of his priesthood in the time of Solomon; though some understand this not of an elder in years, but in office; and that the sense is, that there should be none of his family a senator, or a member of the great sanhedrim, or court of judicature; and so it is interpreted in the Talmud (h); with which agree Ben Gersom and Abarbinel.
(g) "venientes", Montanus. (h) T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 14. 1.
I will cut off thine arm, and the arm of thy father's house--By the withdrawal of the high priesthood from Eleazar, the elder of Aaron's two sons (after Nadab and Abihu were destroyed, [Numbers 3:4]), that dignity had been conferred on the family of Ithamar, to which Eli belonged, and now that his descendants had forfeited the honor, it was to be taken from them and restored to the elder branch.
"Behold, days come," - a formula with which prophets were accustomed to announce future events (see 2-Kings 20:17; Isaiah 39:6; Amos 4:2; Amos 8:11; Amos 9:13; Jeremiah 7:32, etc.), - "then will I cut off thine arm, and the arm of thy father's house, that there shall be no old man in thine house." To cut off the arm means to destroy the strength either of a man or of a family (see Job. 1-Samuel 22:9; Psalm 37:17). The strength of a family, however, consists in the vital energy of its members, and shows itself in the fact that they reach a good old age, and do not pine away early and die. This strength was to vanish in Eli's house; no one would ever again preserve his life to old age.
Arm - That is, I will take away thy strength, or all that in which thou placest thy confidence, either, the ark, which is called God's strength, Psalm 78:61, and was Eli's strength, who therefore was not able to bear the very tidings of the loss of it. Or, his priestly dignity or employment, whence he had all his honour and substance. Or rather, his children, to whom the words following here, and in the succeeding verses, seem to confine it. Father's house - That is, thy children's children, and all thy family which was in great measure accomplished, 1-Samuel 22:16, &c.
*More commentary available at chapter level.