וַיְהִ֞י כְּהַזְכִּיר֣וֹ ׀ אֶת־אֲר֣וֹן הָאֱלֹהִ֗ים וַיִּפֹּ֣ל מֵֽעַל־הַ֠כִּסֵּ֠א אֲחֹ֨רַנִּ֜ית בְּעַ֣ד ׀ יַ֣ד הַשַּׁ֗עַר וַתִּשָּׁבֵ֤ר מַפְרַקְתּוֹ֙ וַיָּמֹ֔ת כִּֽי־זָקֵ֥ן הָאִ֖ישׁ וְכָבֵ֑ד וְה֛וּא שָׁפַ֥ט אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל אַרְבָּעִ֥ים שָׁנָֽה׃
When he mentioned the Ark of God, [Eli] fell backward off the seat beside the gate, broke his neck and died; for the man was old and heavy. He had been a chieftain of Israel for forty years.
(The above rendering comes from the RJPS translation, an adaptation of the NJPS translation. Before accounting for this rendering, I will analyze the plain sense of the Hebrew term containing אִישׁ, by employing a situation-oriented construal as outlined in this document, pp. 11–16.)
Here הָאִישׁ maintains the audience’s attention on the existing depicted situation (Eli’s tragic demise), by labeling its referent in terms of participation in that situation, and thus tying the stated qualities directly to what transpired. This is a classic usage of a situating noun, to admit into the discourse new salient information about a discourse-active, situation-defining participant.
As for rendering into English, the NJPS ‘he was an old man and heavy’ does not allow man to accomplish what אִישׁ does in the source text. The revised wording does.