1 Samuel 3–4

The Appears to Samuel

3In those days, when the boy Samuel was serving the Lord under the direction of Eli, there were very few messages from the Lord, and visions from him were quite rare. ²One night Eli, who was now almost blind, was sleeping in his own room; ³Samuel was sleeping in the sanctuary, where the sacred Covenant Box was. Before dawn, while the lamp was still burning, ⁴the Lord called Samuel. He answered, “Yes, sir!” ⁵and ran to Eli and said, “You called me, and here I am.”

But Eli answered, “I didn’t call you; go back to bed.” So Samuel went back to bed.

^6–7The Lord called Samuel again. The boy did not know that it was the Lord, because the Lord had never spoken to him before. So he got up, went to Eli, and said, “You called me, and here I am.”

But Eli answered, “My son, I didn’t call you; go back to bed.”

⁸The Lord called Samuel a third time; he got up, went to Eli, and said, “You called me, and here I am.”

Then Eli realized that it was the Lord who was calling the boy, ⁹so he said to him, “Go back to bed; and if he calls you again, say, ‘Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.’ ” So Samuel went back to bed.

¹⁰The Lord came and stood there, and called as he had before, “Samuel! Samuel!”

Samuel answered, “Speak; your servant is listening.”

¹¹The Lord said to him, “Some day I am going to do something to the people of Israel that is so terrible that everyone who hears about it will be stunned. ¹²On that day I will carry out all my threats against Eli’s family, from beginning to end. ¹³I have already told him^k that I am going to punish his family for ever because his sons have spoken evil things against me. Eli knew they were doing this, but he did not stop them. ¹⁴So I solemnly declare to the family of Eli that no sacrifice or offering will ever be able to remove the consequences of this terrible sin.”

¹⁵Samuel stayed in bed until morning; then he got up and opened the doors of the house of the Lord. He was afraid to tell Eli about the vision. ¹⁶Eli called him, “Samuel, my boy!”

“Yes, sir,” answered Samuel.

¹⁷“What did the Lord tell you?” Eli asked. “Don’t keep anything from me. God will punish you severely if you don’t tell me everything he said.” ¹⁸So Samuel told him everything; he did not keep anything back. Eli said, “He is the Lord; he will do whatever seems best to him.”

¹⁹As Samuel grew up, the Lord was with him and made everything that Samuel said come true. ²⁰So all the people of Israel, from one end of the country to the other, knew that Samuel was indeed a prophet of the Lord. ²¹The Lord continued to reveal himself at Shiloh, where he had appeared to Samuel and had spoken to him. And when Samuel spoke, all Israel listened.

The Capture of the Covenant Box

4At that time the Philistines gathered to go to war against Israel, so^l the Israelites set out to fight them. The Israelites set up their camp at Ebenezer and the Philistines at Aphek. ²The Philistines attacked, and after fierce fighting they defeated the Israelites and killed about 4,000 men on the battlefield. ³When the survivors came back to camp, the leaders of Israel said, “Why did the Lord let the Philistines defeat us today? Let’s go and bring the Lord’s Covenant Box from Shiloh, so that he^m will go with us and save us from our enemies.” ^4*So they sent messengers to Shiloh and fetched the Covenant Box of the Lord Almighty, who is enthroned above the winged creatures.ⁿ And Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, came along with the Covenant Box.

⁵When the Covenant Box arrived, the Israelites gave such a loud shout of joy that the earth shook. ⁶The Philistines heard the shouting and said, “Listen to all that shouting in the Hebrew camp! What does it mean?” When they found out that the Lord’s Covenant Box had arrived in the Hebrew camp, ⁷they were afraid, and said, “A god has come into their camp! We’re lost! Nothing like this has ever happened to us before! ⁸Who can save us from those powerful gods? They are the gods who slaughtered the Egyptians in the desert! ⁹Be brave, Philistines! Fight like men, or we will become slaves to the Hebrews, just as they were our slaves. So fight like men!”

¹⁰The Philistines fought hard and defeated the Israelites, who went running to their homes. There was a great slaughter: 30,000 Israelite soldiers were killed. ¹¹God’s Covenant Box was captured, and Eli’s sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were both killed.

The Death of Eli

¹²A man from the tribe of Benjamin ran all the way from the battlefield to Shiloh and arrived there the same day. To show his grief, he had torn his clothes and put earth on his head. ¹³Eli, who was very anxious about the Covenant Box, was sitting on a seat beside the road, staring. The man spread the news throughout the town, and everyone cried out in fear. ¹⁴Eli heard the noise and asked, “What is all this noise about?” The man hurried to Eli to tell him the news. ¹⁵(Eli was now 98 years old and almost completely blind.) ¹⁶The man said, “I have escaped from the battle and have run all the way here today.”

Eli asked him, “What happened, my son?”

¹⁷The messenger answered, “Israel ran away from the Philistines; it was a terrible defeat for us! Besides that, your sons Hophni and Phinehas were killed, and God’s Covenant Box was captured!”

¹⁸When the man mentioned the Covenant Box, Eli fell backwards from his seat beside the gate. He was so old and fat that the fall broke his neck, and he died. He had been a leader in Israel for 40 years.

The Death of the Widow of Phinehas

¹⁹Eli’s daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant, and it was almost time for her baby to be born. When she heard that God’s Covenant Box had been captured and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she suddenly went into labour and gave birth. ²⁰As she was dying, the women helping her said to her, “Be brave! You have a son!” But she paid no attention and did not answer. ²¹She named the boy Ichabod,^o explaining, “God’s glory has left Israel”—referring to the capture of the Covenant Box and the death of her father-in-law and her husband. ²²“God’s glory has left Israel,” she said, “because God’s Covenant Box has been captured.”