^3:1Now the boy Samuel continued serving the Lord under Eli’s supervision.¹ Word from the Lord was rare in those days; revelatory visions were infrequent.

^3:2Eli’s eyes had begun to fail, so that he was unable to see well. At that time he was lying down in his place, ^3:3and the lamp of God had not yet been extinguished. Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord as well; the ark of God was also there. ^3:4The Lord called to Samuel, and he replied, “Here I am!” ^3:5Then he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But Eli² said, “I didn’t call you. Go back and lie down.” So he went back and lay down. ^3:6The Lord again called, “Samuel!” So Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But Eli³ said, “I didn’t call you, my son. Go back and lie down.”

^3:7Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord; the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. ^3:8Then the Lord called Samuel a third time. So he got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me!” Eli then realized that it was the Lord who was calling the boy. ^3:9So Eli said to Samuel, “Go back and lie down. When he calls you, say, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” So Samuel went back and lay down in his place.

^3:10Then the Lord came and stood nearby, calling as he had previously done, “Samuel! Samuel!” Samuel replied, “Speak, for your servant is listening!” ^3:11The Lord said to Samuel, “Look! I am about to do something in Israel;⁴ when anyone hears about it, both of his ears will tingle. ^3:12On that day I will carry out⁵ against Eli everything that I spoke about his house—from start to finish! ^3:13You⁶ should tell him that I am about to judge his house forever because of⁷ the sin that he knew about. For his sons were cursing God,⁸ and he did not rebuke them. ^3:14Therefore I swore an oath to the house of Eli, ‘The sin of the house of Eli can never be forgiven by sacrifice or by grain offering.’ ”

^3:15So Samuel lay down until morning. Then he opened the doors of the Lord’s house. But Samuel was afraid to tell Eli about the vision. ^3:16However, Eli called Samuel and said, “Samuel, my son!” He replied, “Here I am.” ^3:17Eli⁹ said, “What message did he speak to you? Don’t conceal it from me. God will judge you severely¹⁰ if you conceal from me anything that he said to you!”

^3:18So Samuel told him everything. He did not hold back anything from him. Eli¹¹ said, “The Lord will do what he pleases.”¹²^3:19Samuel continued to grow, and the Lord was with him. None of his prophecies fell to the ground unfulfilled.¹³^3:20All Israel from Dan to Beer Sheba realized that Samuel was confirmed as a prophet of the Lord. ^3:21Then the Lord again appeared in Shiloh, for it was in Shiloh that the Lord had revealed himself to Samuel¹⁴ through the word of the Lord.¹⁵^4:1Samuel revealed the word of the Lord¹ to all Israel.

The Ark of the Covenant is Lost to the Philistines

Then the Israelites went out to fight the Philistines.² They camped at Ebenezer,³ and the Philistines camped at Aphek. ^4:2The Philistines arranged their forces to fight⁴ Israel. As the battle spread out,⁵ Israel was defeated by⁶ the Philistines, who⁷ killed about four thousand men in the battle line in the field.

^4:3When the army⁸ came back to the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why did the Lord let us be defeated today by⁹ the Philistines? Let’s take with us the ark of the covenant of the Lord from Shiloh. When it is with us, it will save us¹⁰ from the hand of our enemies.

^4:4So the army¹¹ sent to Shiloh, and they took from there the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts who sits between the cherubim. Now the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phineas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God. ^4:5When the ark of the covenant of the Lord arrived at the camp, all Israel shouted so loudly¹² that the ground shook.

^4:6When the Philistines heard the sound of the shout, they said, “What is this loud shout in the camp of the Hebrews?” Then they realized that the ark of the Lord had arrived at the camp. ^4:7The Philistines were scared because they thought that gods had come to the camp.¹³ They said, “Too bad for¹⁴ us! We’ve never seen anything like this! ^4:8Too bad for us! Who can deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all sorts of plagues in the desert! ^4:9Be strong and act like men, you Philistines, or else you will wind up serving the Hebrews the way they have served you! Act like men and fight!”

^4:10So the Philistines fought. Israel was defeated; they all ran home.¹⁵ The slaughter was very great; thirty thousand foot soldiers fell in battle. ^4:11The ark of God was taken, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phineas, were killed.

Eli Dies

^4:12On that day¹⁶ a Benjaminite ran from the battle lines and came to Shiloh. His clothes were torn and dirt was on his head. ^4:13When he arrived in Shiloh, Eli was sitting in his chair watching by the side of¹⁷ the road, for he was very worried¹⁸ about the ark of God. As the man entered the city to give his report,¹⁹ the whole city cried out.

^4:14When Eli heard the outcry,²⁰ he said, “What is this commotion?”²¹ The man quickly came and told Eli. ^4:15Now Eli was ninety-eight years old and his eyes looked straight ahead;²² he was unable to see.

^4:16The man said to Eli, “I am the one who came from the battle lines! Just today I fled from the battle lines!” Eli²³ asked, “How did things go, my son?” ^4:17The messenger replied, “Israel has fled from²⁴ the Philistines! The army has suffered a great defeat! Your two sons, Hophni and Phineas, are dead! The ark of God has been captured!”

^4:18When he mentioned the ark of God, Eli²⁵ fell backward from his chair beside the gate. He broke his neck and died, for he²⁶ was old and heavy. He had judged Israel for forty years.

^4:19His daughter-in-law, the wife of Phineas, was pregnant and close to giving birth. When she heard that the ark of God was captured and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she doubled over and gave birth. But her labor pains were too much for her. ^4:20As she was dying, the women who were there with her said, “Don’t be afraid! You have given birth to a son!” But she did not reply or pay any attention.²⁷

^4:21She named the boy Ichabod,²⁸ saying, “The glory has departed from Israel,” referring to the capture of the ark of God and the deaths of her father-in-law and her husband. ^4:22She said, “The glory has departed from Israel, because the ark of God has been captured.”

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Footnotes

1 Heb “before Eli.”
2 Heb “he”; the referent (Eli) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
3 Heb “he”; the referent (Eli) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
4 The Hebrew text adds “so that” here, formally connecting this clause with the next.
5 Or “fulfill.”
6 The has וְהִגַּדְתִּי לוֹ (véhiggadti lo). The verb is Hiphil perfect 1st person common singular, and apparently the conjunction should be understood as vav consecutive (“I will say to him”). But the future reference makes more sense if Samuel is the subject. This would require dropping the final י (yod) and reading the 2nd person masculine singular וְהִגַּדְתָּ (véhiggadta). Although there is no external evidence to support it, this reading has been adopted in the present translation. The alternative is to understand the to mean “I said to him,” but for this we would expect the preterite with vav consecutive.
7 The translation understands the preposition to have a causal sense. However, the preposition could also be understood as the beth pretii, indicating in a broad sense the price attached to this action. So §119.p.
8 The translation follows the θεόν (theon, “God”) rather than the לָהֶם (lahem, “to them”). The seems to mean “they were bringing a curse on themselves” (cf. , ). But this meaning is problematic in part because the verb qll means “to curse,” not “to bring a curse on,” and in part because it takes an accusative object rather than the equivalent of a dative. This is one of the so-called tiqqune sopherim, or “emendations of the scribes.” Why would the ancient copyists alter the original statement about Eli’s sons cursing God to the less objectionable statement that they brought a curse on themselves? Some argue that the scribes were concerned that such a direct and blasphemous affront against God could occur without an immediate response of judgment from God. Therefore they changed the text by deleting two letters א and י (alef and yod) from the word for “God,” with the result that the text then read “to them.” If this ancient scribal claim is accepted as accurate, it implies that the here is secondary. The present translation follows the (κακολογοῦντες θεόν, kakologountes theon) and a few of the Old Latin in reading “God” rather than the “to them.” Cf. also , , .
9 Heb “he”; the referent (Eli) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
10 Heb “So God will do to you and thus he will add.” The verbal forms in this pronouncement are imperfects, not jussives, but the statement has the force of a curse or warning. One could translate, “May God do to you and thus may he add.”
11 Heb “he”; the referent (Eli) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
12 Heb “what is good in his eyes.”
13 Heb “and he did not cause to fall from all his words to the ground.”
14 The has a lengthy addition here: “And Samuel was acknowledged to be a prophet of the Lord in all Israel, from one end to the other. Eli was very old and, as for his sons, their way kept getting worse and worse before the Lord.” The Hebraic nature of the Greek syntax used here suggests that the translator was accurately rendering a Hebrew variant and not simply expanding the text on his own initiative.
15 The chapter division at this point is inappropriate. 1 Sam 4:1a is best understood as the conclusion to chap. 3 rather than the beginning of chap. 4.
1 Heb “and the word of Samuel was.” The present translation understands Samuel to be the speaker of the divine word (“Samuel” is a subjective genitive in this case), although the statement could mean that he was the recipient of the divine word (“Samuel” is an objective genitive in this case) who in turn reported it to Israel.
2 Heb “and Israel went out to meet the Philistines for battle.”
3 Heb “the stone, the help.” The second noun is in apposition to the first one and apparently is the name by which the stone was known. Contrast the expression used in 5:1 and 7:12, where the first word lacks the definite article, unlike 4:1.
4 Heb “to meet.”
5 The has וַתִּטֹּשׁ (vattittosh), from the root נטשׁ (ntsh). This verb normally means “to leave,” “to forsake,” or “to permit,” but such an idea does not fit this context very well. Many scholars have suspected that the text originally read either וַתֵּט (vattet, “and it spread out”), from the root נטה (nth), or וַתִּקֶשׁ (vattiqesh, “and it grew fierce”), from the root קשׂה (qsh). The former suggestion is apparently supported by the ἔκλινεν (eklinen, “it inclined”) and is adopted in the translation.
6 Heb “before.”
7 Heb “the Philistines, and they killed.” The pronoun “they” has been translated as a relative pronoun (“who”) to make it clear to the English reader that the Philistines were the ones who did the killing.
8 Or “people.”
9 Heb “before.”
10 Heb “and it will come in our midst and it will save.” After the cohortative (see “let’s take”), the prefixed verbal forms with the prefixed conjunction indicate purpose or result. The translation understands the ark to be the subject of the third masculine singular verbs, although it is possible to understand the Lord as the subject. In the latter case, one should translate, “when he is with us, he will save us.”
11 Or “people.”
12 Heb “shouted [with] a great shout.”
13 The Hebrew text has a direct quote, “because they said, ‘Gods have come to the camp.’ ” Even though the verb translated “have come” is singular, the following subject should be taken as plural (“gods”), as v. 8 indicates. Some emend the verb to a plural form.
14 Traditionally “woe to.” They thought disaster was imminent.
15 Heb “and they fled, each to his tents.”
16 Or perhaps, “the same day.” On this use of the demonstrative pronoun see 2: §143.f.
17 Read with many medieval Hebrew , the Qere, and much versional evidence יַד (yad, “hand”) rather than יַךְ (yakh).
18 Heb “his heart was trembling.”
19 Heb “and the man came to report in the city.”
20 Heb “the sound of the cry.”
21 Heb “the sound of this commotion.”
22 Heb “were set” or “were fixed,” i.e., without vision.
23 Heb “he”; the referent (Eli) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
24 Heb “before.”
25 Heb “he”; the referent (Eli) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
26 Heb “the man.”
27 Heb “and she did not set her heart.”
28 The name Ichabod (אִי־כָבוֹד) may mean, “Where is the glory?”