There are two occasions in Scripture where we are told about women serving at the tabernacle. The first is in Exodus 38:8 and the second is here in Samuel. On neither occasion is there a suggestion that the women were prostitutes. Indeed, ritual prostitution, though common amongst Canaanites, was forbidden in God’s law (see Numbers 25:1–5; Deuteronomy 23:17).1 Most likely these women were the daughters of the priests and/or those who took a Nazirite vow (Numbers 6:1–27). They would have helped with cleaning, cooking, and other tasks associated with the tabernacle. The fact that Eli’s sons were sons of Belial (1 Samuel 2:12) also suggests that they forced themselves on the women and that the sex was not consensual (cf. Judges 19:22).
22 Now Eli was very old, and he kept hearing all that his sons were doing to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who were serving at the entrance to the tent of meeting.