1 Samuel 2:23,24 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

And he said, Why do ye do such things? He reproved them, but far too gently, as these and the following words manifest. This might proceed partly from the coldness of old age, but it arose chiefly from his too great indulgence to his children. I hear of your evil dealings by all this people Their wickedness was so notorious that there was a general complaint of it, which should have moved him to much greater severity than merely to reprove and chide them. He ought to have restrained them, and if he could not otherwise have done it, to have inflicted those punishments upon them which such high crimes deserved, according to God's law, and which he, as high-priest and judge, was in duty bound to inflict without respect of persons. Nay, my sons, for it is no good report that I hear This is the language of a father, not of a zealous judge. Ye make the Lord's people to transgress By causing them to neglect and despise the service of God, and tempting them to lewdness.