And yet there is a man of yours that I shall not cut off from being at my altar so as to cause your eyes to fail and to make your soul pine away; but the greater number of your house will all die by the sword of men.

Eli’s posterity did fill the high priestly office for years after that, but their eyes saw many calamities, such as the slaughter of the priests by the order of Saul. (1 Sam. 22:11, 16-18) A further part of the judgment came years later when King Solomon “drove out Abiathar [the high priest, a descendant of Eli] from serving as a priest of Jehovah, to fulfill Jehovah’s word that he had spoken against the house of Eli in Shiloh.” Solomon replaced Abiathar in office with Zadok. (1 Ki. 2:27, 35) Zadok was a descendant of the line of Aaron’s son Eleazar, whereas Eli was of the line of Ithamar, another son of Aaron. (1 Chron. 6:50-53; 24:1; 1 Sam. 14:3; 22:9) Even then God allowed some of Eli’s descendants to serve as underpriests. But they experienced the decline of worship at the temple during the reign of the kings, when the priesthood did not receive proper support from the people.​—2 Chron. 29:3, 6; 33:7; 34:8-11.