There ran a man of Benjamin out of the army, and came to Shiloh the same day, with his clothes torn, and with earth on his head.
The truth is that Eli was in "his seat," the location of which was near the entrance to the tabernacle  (1 Samuel 1:9), and it was not by the side of the road along which a messenger from the battle-scene would have had to travel.  Quibbles regarding matters of this kind can be multiplied without any profit whatever.  "The gate by which Eli was sitting was not the gate of the city but the gate of the temple area."[7]