^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.

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Footnotes

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.