Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial; they knew not the LORD.
Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial, х bªneey (H1121) bªliyaa`al (H1100), sons of worthlessness (cf. Deuteronomy 14:13; Judges 19:22; Judges 20:13, where the phrase occurs in a slightly altered form)] - not only careless and irreligious, but men loose in their actions, and vicious and scandalous in their habits. Though professionally engaged in sacred duties, they were not only strangers to the power of religion in the heart, but they had thrown off its restraints, and even ran, as is often done in similar cases by the sons of eminent ministers, to the opposite extreme of reckless and open profligacy.