You shall see the affliction of [my] habitation, in all the wealth which [God] shall give Israel; and there shall not be an old man in your house forever.
God’s judgment on Eli and his sons was that He would dishonor them. God had promised that Levi’s descendants would serve Him forever as priests, namely, as long as Israel existed as a sovereign nation (Exodus 29:9; Numbers 25:13). Now God revealed that He would cut off Eli’s branch of the Levitical family tree. Eli was a descendant of Levi through Levi’s son Ithamar. His descendants ceased to function as priests when Solomon dismissed Abiathar as high priest. Abiathar escaped the slaughter of the priests at Nob (1 Samuel 22:17-20), but Solomon defrocked him because he supported Adonijah (1 Kings 2:27; 1 Kings 2:35).