Eli’s sons took meat from worshipers by force and demanded choice portions before the fat was burned. The text says they treated the Lord’s offering with contempt. 1 Samuel 2:12–17
After Elkanah returns home to Ramah, the story stays at Shiloh and contrasts the boy Samuel’s ongoing service with the behavior of Eli’s sons. The narrator brands Eli’s sons as worthless and as people who do not know Yahweh. This unit follows Hannah’s prayer and song and the family’s fulfillment of their vow by leaving Samuel at Shiloh (1 Samuel 2:11). The narrative now pivots from Samuel’s beginnings to the priestly household that oversees the sanctuary.
The passage moves from Samuel’s quiet service at Shiloh to an exposure of Eli’s sons. The narrator gives a direct verdict about them: they are “base men” and they “didn’t know Yahweh” (explicit claims). The story then illustrates that verdict through repeated abuse connected to sacrifices. What they do is not presented as a one-time mistake.
A careful answer keeps the immediate passage, the book's argument, and the whole-Bible storyline together, so the question is answered in context instead of as a detached idea.
Start with 1 Samuel 2:12-17, then read the surrounding section so the answer stays connected to the passage's flow.
12Now the sons of Eli were base men; they didn`t know Yahweh.
13The custom of the priests with the people was that when any man offered sacrifice, the priest`s servant came, while the flesh was boiling, with a flesh-hook of three teeth in his hand;
14and he struck it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; all that the flesh-hook brought up the priest took therewith. So they did in Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there.
15Yes, before they burnt the fat, the priest`s servant came, and said to the man who sacrificed, Give flesh to roast for the priest; for he will not have boiled flesh of you, but raw.
16If the man said to him, They will surely burn the fat first, and then take as much as your soul desires; then he would say, No, but you shall give it me now: and if not, I will take it by force.
17The sin of the young men was very great before Yahweh; for the men despised the offering of Yahweh.