Bede : And he said to them: Why do you do such things? etc. He rebuked the guilty sons of Eli, but they did not listen. And the very institution of the old priesthood orders its ministers to be perfect; but the scribes, Pharisees, and chief priests, being wicked, in their ruin despised the paternal voice of their law and priesthood. However, we must not overlook the literal aspect, that he rebuked the sons of Eli; but because they despised the rebuke and he neglected to cast them out as he should have, he perished along with them. What then do we wretched, what do our similars deserve, who delight in sins, who do not dare to amend, who fear their own conscience; and what the entire people shouts, they pretend not to know? — Commentary on Samuel Gregory the Dialogist : 17. Behold, Eli was an old man, and he spoke sharply, because the power of sacred eloquence, even if it fails in the heart of the reprobate, nevertheless before those who rightly understand, subtly searches out the faults of the Jews. For examining strictly, he says: "Why do you do such things as these, the very worst things that I hear from all the people?" But he who, searching, asks "Why do you do this?" clearly shows that they were plunging into the night of heresy without the discernment of reason. Moreover, he says that they had done the very worst things, which he was hearing, and he asserts that those very worst things were from all the people. What is this, except that the whole of the Jewish people had fallen into the depths of heresies? But the cause of that ruin was the reprobate priests. Whence also Hosea, prophesying, says: "The cause of the ruin of the people is the wicked priests" (Hosea 5:1). For the subject people fell precisely because they eagerly imitated their fallen leaders. Therefore, when he says, "the very worst things that I hear from all the people," these things should be understood as being done by the people, not reported by them. This is as if he were saying: "The very worst things that I hear are being done by all the people — why do you do them?"... — Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 2, Chapter 2