Footnote

d Eli’s priesthood must have begun more than 60 years prior to Saul’s reign, since Eli ‘judged Israel for forty years’ (1 Sam. 4:18), and since the ark of the covenant was in Kiriath-jearim for 20 years subsequent to his death and up to the Israelite victory over Philistia, which preceded Saul’s reign. (1 Sam. 6:1; 7:1, 2) Eli’s judging as a priest would not prevent other judges from serving contemporaneously, even as Samuel appointed his own sons to serve as judges in Beer-sheba.—1 Sam. 8:1, 2.