¹Israel went to fight against the Philistines and camped near Ebenezer while the Philistines camped at Aphek. ²The Philistines organized their troops to meet Israel in battle. As the battle spread,the Philistines defeated Israel and killed about 4,000 soldiers in the field.

³When the troops came back to the camp, the leaders of Israel asked, “Why has the Lord used the Philistines to defeat us today? Let’s get the ark of the Lord’s promise from Shiloh so that he may be with us and save us from our enemies.” ⁴The troops sent some men who brought back the ark of the promise of the Lord of Armies—who is enthroned over the angels.^bEli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, came along with God’s ark. ⁵When the Lord’s ark came into the camp, all Israel shouted so loudly that the earth rang with echoes.

⁶As the Philistines heard the noise, they asked, “What’s ⸤all⸥ this shouting in the Hebrew camp?” The Philistines found out that the Lord’s ark had come into the camp. ⁷Then they were frightened and said, “A god has come into ⸤their⸥ camp.” They also said, “Oh no! Nothing like this has ever happened before. ⁸We’re in trouble now! Who can save us from the power of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with every kind of plague in the desert. ⁹Be strong, Philistines, and act like men, or else you will serve the Hebrews as they served you. Act like men and fight.”

The Ark Captured

¹⁰The Philistines fought and defeated Israel. Every ⸤Israelite⸥ soldier fled to his tent. It was a major defeat in which 30,000 Israelite foot soldiers died. ¹¹The ark of God was captured. Both of Eli’s sons, Hophni and Phinehas, died.

¹²A man from the tribe of Benjamin ran from the front line of the battle. He went to Shiloh that day with his clothes torn and dirt on his head.^c¹³When he arrived, Eli was sitting on a chair beside the road, watching. He was worried about the ark of God. The man went into the city to tell the news. The whole city cried out. ¹⁴Hearing the cry, Eli asked, “What is this commotion?” So the man went quickly to tell Eli the news. ¹⁵(Eli was 98 years old, and his eyesight had failed so that he couldn’t see.)

¹⁶The man told Eli, “I’m the one who came from the battle. I fled from the front line today.”

“What happened, son?” Eli asked.

¹⁷“Israel fled from the Philistines,” the messenger answered. “Our troops suffered heavy casualties. Your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, also are dead, and the ark of God has been captured.”

¹⁸When the messenger mentioned the ark of God, Eli fell from his chair backwards toward the gate. He broke his neck, and he died. (The man was old and heavy.) He had judged^dIsrael for 40 years.

¹⁹His daughter-in-law, Phinehas’ wife, was pregnant. When she heard the news that the ark of God had been captured and her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she went into labor prematurely and gave birth to a son. ²⁰As she was dying, the women helping her said, “Don’t be afraid. You’ve given birth to a son.” But she didn’t answer or pay attention.

²¹She called the boy Ichabod ^[No Glory^[, saying, “Israel’s glory is gone,” because the ark of God had been captured and because her father-in-law and her husband ⸤died⸥. ²²“Israel’s glory is gone because the ark of God has been captured,” she said.

5TH CHAPTER

The Ark in Philistia

¹After the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. ²They brought it into the temple of Dagon and placed it beside Dagon. ³Early the next day the people of Ashdod saw that Dagon had fallen forward on the ground in front of the Lord’s ark. So they took Dagon and put him back in his place. ⁴But the next morning they saw that Dagon had ⸤again⸥ fallen forward on the ground in front of the Lord’s ark. Dagon’s head and his two hands were cut off ⸤and were lying⸥ on the temple’s threshold. The rest of Dagon’s body was intact.^a⁵This is why the priests of Dagon and everyone else who comes into Dagon’s temple in Ashdod still don’t step on the temple’s threshold.

⁶The Lord dealt harshly with the people of Ashdod. He destroyed them by striking the people in the vicinity of Ashdod with tumors. ⁷When the people of Ashdod realized what was happening, they said, “The ark of the God of Israel must not stay with us, because their God is dealing harshly with us and our god Dagon.” ⁸The people of Ashdod called together all the Philistine rulers. “What should we do with the ark of the God of Israel?” they asked.

“The ark of the God of Israel must be taken to Gath,” the rulers said.^bSo the people took the ark of the God of Israel there.

⁹But after they had moved it,^cthe Lord threw the city into a great panic: He struck all the important and unimportant people in the city, and they were covered with tumors. ¹⁰So the people of Gath sent the ark of God to Ekron. But when the ark of God came to Ekron, the people of Ekron cried out, “They brought the ark of the God of Israel here to kill us.” ¹¹They called together all the Philistine rulers. “Send the ark of the God of Israel away,” they said. “Let it go back to its own place so that it won’t kill us or our people.” There was a fear of death throughout the city, where God dealt ⸤with them⸥ very harshly. ¹²The people who didn’t die were struck with tumors. So the cry of the city went up to heaven.

Read in Logos

Footnotes

b 4:4 Or “cherubim.”
c 4:12 Tearing one’s clothes and throwing dirt on one’s head was a sign of mourning.
d 4:18 Eli served as a God-appointed political/religious leader of Israel like the judges in the book of Judges.
[Proper names or foreign words whose meaning is significant for understanding a particular Bible passage are translated in brackets following the name or phrase
a 5:4 Greek; Masoretic Text “Only Dagon was left.”
b 5:8 Dead Sea Scrolls, Greek read “The citizens of Gath said, ‘Let the ark of God be brought to us.
c 5:9 Dead Sea Scrolls add “to Gath.”