Now Eli was very old, and heard all that his sons did unto all Israel; and how they lay with the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
The women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle х hatsobª'owt (H6633) petach (H6607) 'ohel (H168) mow`eed (H4150), that assembled at the door of the congregation as a regularly-organized band of attendants]. This was an institution of holy women of a strictly ascetic order, who had relinquished worldly cares and devoted themselves to the Lord-an institution which continued from the age of Moses (see the note at Exodus 38:8) down to the time of Christ (Luke 2:37) (Hengstenberg, 'Genuineness of the Pentateuch,' 2:, pp. 110, 111). Eli was on the whole a good man, but unhappy in the moral and religious training of his family. He erred on the side of parental indulgence; and though he reprimanded them (see the note at Deuteronomy 21:18-21), yet, from fear or indolence, shrunk from laying on them the restraints, or subjecting them to the discipline, their gross delinquencies called for. In his judicial capacity he winked at their flagrant acts of mal-administration, and suffered them to make reckless encroachments on the constitution, by which the most serious injuries were inflicted both on the rights of the people and the laws of God.