Eli's Seat: the Transition From Priest To Prophet in i sAmuel 1-4

Abstract

Three times in 1 Samuel (1.9; 4.13, 18) Eli the priest is described sitting on the seat ( 'al hakkisse'). Robert Polzin has argued that these references depict Eli as a royal figure. His failure predicts Israel's subsequent failed kingship. While agreeing that the use of kisse' in this story is suggestive, Eli should be seen as a priestly figure who illegitimately occupied the kisse' that according to DH is reserved for Israel's ideal king (Deut. 17.18), a Davidide (2 Sam. 7.13). Thus, every incident in which Eli sits in the kisse' portrays the priest negatively. When he falls from the kisse', he is literally and metaphorically deposed from being Israel's priest and leader. His place—but not the kisse'—is then taken by a prophet whom Eli had initially groomed to be a priest: Samuel. This prophet played a strategic role in David's eventual occupation of the kisse'.