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.
Related Commentaries of 1 Samuel 4:15
1 Samuel 4:15
15 Now Eli was ninety and eight years old; and his eyes were dim,f that he could not see.