1 Samuel 3–4

The Lord Calls Samuel

3The boy Samuel ministered^q before the Lord under Eli. In those days the word of the Lord was rare;^r there were not many visions.^s

²One night Eli, whose eyes^t were becoming so weak that he could barely see,^u was lying down in his usual place. ³The lamp^v of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the house^w of the Lord, where the ark^x of God was. ⁴Then the Lord called Samuel.

Samuel answered, “Here I am.^y” ⁵And he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”

But Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” So he went and lay down.

⁶Again the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”

“My son,” Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.”

⁷Now Samuel did not yet know^z the Lord: The word^a of the Lord had not yet been revealed^b to him.

⁸A third time the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”

Then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy. ⁹So Eli told Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’ ” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

¹⁰The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!^c”

Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

¹¹And the Lord said to Samuel: “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears about it tingle.^{d 12}At that time I will carry out against Eli everything^e I spoke against his family—from beginning to end. ¹³For I told him that I would judge his family forever because of the sin he knew about; his sons blasphemed God,^a and he failed to restrain^f them. ¹⁴Therefore I swore to the house of Eli, ‘The guilt of Eli’s house will never be atoned^g for by sacrifice or offering.’ ”

¹⁵Samuel lay down until morning and then opened the doors of the house of the Lord. He was afraid to tell Eli the vision, ¹⁶but Eli called him and said, “Samuel, my son.”

Samuel answered, “Here I am.”

¹⁷“What was it he said to you?” Eli asked. “Do not hide^h it from me. May God deal with you, be it ever so severely,ⁱ if you hide from me anything he told you.” ¹⁸So Samuel told him everything, hiding nothing from him. Then Eli said, “He is the Lord; let him do what is good in his eyes.”^j

¹⁹The Lord was with^k Samuel as he grew^l up, and he let none^m of Samuel’s words fall to the ground. ²⁰And all Israel from Dan to Beershebaⁿ recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the Lord.^{o 21}The Lord continued to appear at Shiloh, and there he revealed^p himself to Samuel through his word.

4And Samuel’s word came to all Israel.

The Philistines Capture the Ark

Now the Israelites went out to fight against the Philistines. The Israelites camped at Ebenezer,^q and the Philistines at Aphek.^{r 2}The Philistines deployed their forces to meet Israel, and as the battle spread, Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who killed about four thousand of them on the battlefield. ³When the soldiers returned to camp, the elders of Israel asked, “Why^s did the Lord bring defeat on us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark^t of the Lord’s covenant from Shiloh,^u so that he may go with us^v and save us from the hand of our enemies.”

⁴So the people sent men to Shiloh, and they brought back the ark of the covenant of the Lord Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim.^w And Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.

⁵When the ark of the Lord’s covenant came into the camp, all Israel raised such a great shout^x that the ground shook. ⁶Hearing the uproar, the Philistines asked, “What’s all this shouting in the Hebrew^y camp?”

When they learned that the ark of the Lord had come into the camp, ⁷the Philistines were afraid.^z “A god has^a come into the camp,” they said. “Oh no! Nothing like this has happened before. ⁸We’re doomed! Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? They are the gods who struck^a the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues^b in the wilderness. ⁹Be strong, Philistines! Be men, or you will be subject to the Hebrews, as they^c have been to you. Be men, and fight!”

¹⁰So the Philistines fought, and the Israelites were defeated^d and every man fled to his tent. The slaughter was very great; Israel lost thirty thousand foot soldiers. ¹¹The ark of God was captured, and Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, died.^e

Death of Eli

¹²That same day a Benjamite^f ran from the battle line and went to Shiloh with his clothes torn and dust^g on his head. ¹³When he arrived, there was Eli^h sitting on his chair by the side of the road, watching, because his heart feared for the ark of God. When the man entered the town and told what had happened, the whole town sent up a cry.

¹⁴Eli heard the outcry and asked, “What is the meaning of this uproar?”

The man hurried over to Eli, ¹⁵who was ninety-eight years old and whose eyesⁱ had failed so that he could not see. ¹⁶He told Eli, “I have just come from the battle line; I fled from it this very day.”

Eli asked, “What happened, my son?”

¹⁷The man who brought the news replied, “Israel fled before the Philistines, and the army has suffered heavy losses. Also your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead,^j and the ark of God has been captured.”^k

¹⁸When he mentioned the ark of God, Eli fell backward off his chair by the side of the gate. His neck was broken and he died, for he was an old man, and he was heavy. He had led^bl Israel forty years.^m

¹⁹His daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant and near the time of delivery. When she heard the news that the ark of God had been captured and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she went into labor and gave birth, but was overcome by her labor pains. ²⁰As she was dying, the women attending her said, “Don’t despair; you have given birth to a son.” But she did not respond or pay any attention.

²¹She named the boy Ichabod,^cn saying, “The Glory^o has departed from Israel”—because of the capture of the ark of God and the deaths of her father-in-law and her husband. ²²She said, “The Glory^p has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured.”^q