Eli

Eli (עלי "to go up, ascend, climb") is the name of one of the last Israelite Judges before the rule of kings in ancient Israel.  He was also the main priest and trained the young prophet Samuel.

His sons (Hophni and Phinehas) were considered to be very wicked and were eventually struck down by God for the inreverence they showed in doing their priestly duties. God's judgment fell on Eli himself when hearing that Israel lost the Ark of the Covenant to their enemies. After he was told this he fell over in his chair and died.

Hannah, is the wife of Elkanah. He also has another wife Peninnah who bore children with Elkanah. Penninnah at every chance needles Hannah about her barrenness to the point that brings Hannah into deep despair. Her husband sees her distress and tries to uncover her deep despair with these questions.

"Hannah, why do you weep? Why do you not eat? Why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?" 

The story indicates that Hannah gave no answer to the questions and rose and presented herself before the Lord weeping bitterly in the temple. When she is found in the temple by the priest she is praying silently, but her lips are moving. The priest witnesses this odd posture and concludes she is drunk. In her despair she prays to the Lord for a child and if her prayer is granted she will give the son back to the Lord. After Hannah's explanation of her sobriety, Eli blesses her with peace and a guarantee that the God of Israel will grant her request. She went home ate and drank with her husband and was filled with hope. Subsequently Hannah becomes pregnant; her child is named Samuel. The time had come to offer the yearly sacrifice at the temple but Hannah stayed home. She promises to go with him to the temple when Samuel is weaned and planned to leave him with Eli to be trained as a Nazirite. The book of 1 Samuel 2 records Hannah's beautiful prayer to the Lord. She rejoices and exalts the Holy One, "There is none holy like the LORD [Yahweh,"[1]] therefore, the nation should rejoice also in this Holy One. This story of Hannah intertwines itself with the culture of the nation of Israel. Eli is the high priest of Shiloh, the last Israelite judge before the rule of the kings, therefore, the Shiloh tradition will become an old and lost tradition that,  when the prophet Jeremiah comes on the scene in the history of the Lord's people, he will seek to renew and to bring back the way of the Shiloh tradition to the people of Israel because the kings have become wicked and defile the temple and tradition of Yahweh.

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Ark of the Covenant

The Ark of the Covenant (ארון ברית in Hebrew: 'arown bĕriyth) called more fully, The "Ark of The Testimony," wherein rested the stone tablets containing the Ten Commandments. The Ark was built at the command of God, in accord with Moses's prophetic vision on Mount Sinai:

¹⁰ "They shall make an ark of acacia wood. Two cubits and a half shall be its length, a cubit and a half its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height. ¹¹ You shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and outside shall you overlay it, and you shall make on it a molding of gold around it. ¹² You shall cast four rings of gold for it and put them on its four feet, two rings on the one side of it, and two rings on the other side of it. ¹³ You shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. ¹⁴ And you shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry the ark by them. ¹⁵ The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark; they shall not be taken from it. ¹⁶ And you shall put into the ark the testimony that I shall give you —Exodus 25:9-10


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Ark of the Covenant

The Ark of the Covenant (ארון ברית in Hebrew: 'arown bĕriyth) called more fully, The "Ark of The Testimony," wherein rested the stone tablets containing the Ten Commandments. The Ark was built at the command of God, in accord with Moses's prophetic vision on Mount Sinai:

10 "They shall make an ark of acacia wood. Two cubits and a half shall be its length, a cubit and a half its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height. 11 You shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and outside shall you overlay it, and you shall make on it a molding of gold around it. 12 You shall cast four rings of gold for it and put them on its four feet, two rings on the one side of it, and two rings on the other side of it. 13 You shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. 14 And you shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry the ark by them. 15 The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark; they shall not be taken from it. 16 And you shall put into the ark the testimony that I shall give you -Exodus 25:9-10.

Its primary function was for God to communicate with Moses, "from between the two cherubim" on the Ark's cover:

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temple

The architectural structure in Jerusalem that was the focal point of worship and the national life of Israel form the 10th century B.C. when it was built by king Solomon, until it was destructed by Rome in A.D. 70. The temple was rebuilt two times and had three periods during which the temples of Solomon, Zurubabbel, and Herod were in existance.

A temple (from the Latin word templum) is a structure reserved for religious or spiritual activities, such as prayer and sacrifice, or analogous rites. A ‘’templum’’ constituted a sacred precinct as defined by a priest, or augur. It has the same root as the word “ template,’’ a plan in preparation of the building that was marked out on the ground by the augur. Though a templum, technically speaking, is not a “house of the gods” but a diagram that for the Romans linked the geometries of heaven and earth, it was also indicative of a dwelling place of a god or gods. This tradition, of course, dates back to prehistoric times. For the ancient Egyptians, the word pr could refer not only to a house, but also to a sacred structure since it was believed that the gods resided in houses. The word ‘temple’ (which dates to about the 6th century BCE), despite the specific set of meanings associated with the religion of the ancient Rome, has now become quite widely used to describe a house of worship for any number of religions and is even used for time periods prior to the Romans. Stated differently, temple was once a species of sacred structures; today it is, in the English language, often used as a genus.

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Ark of the Covenant

The Ark of the Covenant (ארון הברית in Hebrew: aron habrit) is described in the Hebrew Bible as a sacred container, wherein rested the stone tablets containing the Ten Commandments. It may have looked similar to this chest (right) - found in the Tomb of Tutankhamun. The Ark was built at the command of God, in accord with Moses's prophetic vision on Mount Sinai (Exodus 25:9-10). Its primary function was for God to communicate with Moses, "from between the two cherubim" on the Ark's cover (Exodus 25:22). The Ark and its sanctuary were "the beauty of Israel" (Lamentations 2:1). Rashi and some Midrashim suggest that there were two arks - a temporary one made by Moses and a later one made by Bezalel (Hertz 1936).

During the journeys of the Israelites, the Ark was carried by the priests in advance of the host (Numbers 4:5, 6; 10:33-36; Psalms 68:1; 132:8). The Ark was borne by priests into the bed of the Jordan, which separated, opening a pathway for the whole of the host to pass over (Joshua 3:15, 16; 4:7, 10, 11, 17, 18). The Ark was moreover borne in the procession round Jericho (Josh. 6:4, 6, 8, 11, 12). When carried, the Ark was always wrapped in a veil, in badger skins, a blue cloth, and was carefully concealed, even from the eyes of the Levites who carried it.

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