For I have told him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knows; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not.
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Basil the Great
AD 379
Benevolence to such persons is like that mistaken kindness of Eli which he was accused of showing his sons, contrary to the good pleasure of God. A feigned kindness to the wicked is a betrayal of the truth, an act of treachery to the community and a means of habituating oneself to indifference to evil. - "The Long Rules 28"
Wickedly. Septuagint, "were cursing God. "This is one of the places which the Jews have corrected. (Du Hamel)
Judge; or condemn and punish, Proverbs xix. 29. (Calmet)
Chastise them, not in words only, or in a soft manner, as he had done. Hebrew, "because his sons made themselves despicable, and he did not frown upon them. "(Haydock)
Ciha denotes, to correct with a wrinkled face. (Menochius)
Aquila, "he did not look black at them "nor avert his eyes with horror. All this iniquity was done publicly, and in his presence; (Calmet) and he suffered his children to proceed without any restraint. It is not sufficient to reprove, when a father can correct. (Haydock)
For what reason did wrath and death come upon the house of the priest Eli, the righteous elder who was eminent for forty years in his priesthood? Was it not because of the iniquity of his sons [Hophni] and [Phinehas]? For neither did he sin, nor did they with his assent, but it was because he did not have the zeal to demand from them the Lord’s vindication and he loved them more than the statutes of the Lord. Lest someone surmise that the Lord manifests His wrath only upon those who pass all the days of their life in iniquities, behold how for this unseemly sin He manifests His zeal against His genuine servants, against priests, judges, rulers, men consecrated to Him, to whom He entrusted the working of miracles, and He in no wise overlooks their transgression of His statutes. - "Ascetical Homilies 10"
For no one of those who are now rich will stand up for me there when I am called to account and accused, as not having thoroughly vindicated the laws of God with all due earnestness. For this is what ruined that admirable old man, though the way he lived his own life provided no reason for blame: yet for all that, because he overlooked the treading under foot of God’s laws he was chastised with his children and paid that grievous penalty. And if, where the absolute authority of nature was so great, he who failed to treat his own children with due firmness endured so grievous a punishment; what indulgence shall we have, freed as we are from that dominion and yet ruining all by flattery? - "Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew 17.6"
