Eli's sons vs. Samuel's sons

Before the time of undivided monarchy, there were the periods of judges. The last judges were Samuel and his sons. We heard about the greatness of Samuel. He was a faithful servant of God and obeyed God’s commands to anoint Saul and David. Also, we cannot skip the prayer of Hannah, Samuel’s mother. He was raised by a faithful mother and brought to the priest Eli.

We do not have that much of background story about Eli, but about his two wicked sons, Hophni & Phinehas, and about the brutal deaths of him and his two sons in a same day. Eli’s two sons were wicked in the sight of God that “they had no regard for the LORD” (1 Sam 2:12 NIV). They took the portions from the offerings in an unlawful way and slept with the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. Eli rebuked them but they did not listen. Two sons sinned against God and they all faced the disastrous end.

After Eli’s death, Samuel was the judge who led the Israelites. He was a great leader. When Samuel was old, he appointed his sons as judges of Israel. Yet, Samuel’s sons, Joel & Abijah, did not follow the way of their father. They “turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice” (1 Sam 8:3).
Both Eli’s sons and Samuel’s sons were wicked. Yet, one family faced disastrous ending and the other family was used by God (The Bible does not really mentioned about Samuel’s two sons). Isn’t it unfair? Why dedicated Samuel’s children gone astray? He didn’t teach them right?

We do not have all the answers for the rising questions. However, there were couple things that were definite: (1) Eli’s two sons’ sin was “very great in the LORD’s sight, for they were treating the Lord’s offering with contempt” (1 Sam 2:17); (2) Eli knew about his two sons’ sin, but “failed to restrain them” (1 Sam 3:13); and (3) all the elders of Israel complained to Samuel about his son and wanted a king (1 Sam 8:4-5). When Samuel anointed Saul as a king, his two sons lost their ruling sovereignty over people as judges. All of them paid their prices for their wickedness.But, there were definite differences between the sins of Eli’s sons and Samuel’s sons.