1 Samuel 4–7

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

The Ark in Ashdod and Ekron

5After the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer^r to Ashdod.^{s 2}Then they carried the ark into Dagon’s temple and set it beside Dagon.^{t 3}When the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, there was Dagon, fallen^u on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord! They took Dagon and put him back in his place. ⁴But the following morning when they rose, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord! His head and hands had been broken^v off and were lying on the threshold; only his body remained. ⁵That is why to this day neither the priests of Dagon nor any others who enter Dagon’s temple at Ashdod step on the threshold.^w

⁶The Lord’s hand^x was heavy on the people of Ashdod and its vicinity; he brought devastation^y on them and afflicted them with tumors.^{az 7}When the people of Ashdod saw what was happening, they said, “The ark of the god of Israel must not stay here with us, because his hand is heavy on us and on Dagon our god.” ⁸So they called together all the rulers^a of the Philistines and asked them, “What shall we do with the ark of the god of Israel?”

They answered, “Have the ark of the god of Israel moved to Gath.^b” So they moved the ark of the God of Israel.

⁹But after they had moved it, the Lord’s hand was against that city, throwing it into a great panic.^c He afflicted the people of the city, both young and old, with an outbreak of tumors.^{b 10}So they sent the ark of God to Ekron.^d

As the ark of God was entering Ekron, the people of Ekron cried out, “They have brought the ark of the god of Israel around to us to kill us and our people.” ¹¹So they called together all the rulers^e of the Philistines and said, “Send the ark of the god of Israel away; let it go back to its own place, or it^c will kill us and our people.” For death had filled the city with panic; God’s hand was very heavy on it. ¹²Those who did not die^f were afflicted with tumors, and the outcry of the city went up to heaven.

The Ark Returned to Israel

6When the ark of the Lord had been in Philistine territory seven months, ²the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners^g and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the Lord? Tell us how we should send it back to its place.”

³They answered, “If you return the ark of the god of Israel, do not send it back to him without a gift;^h by all means send a guilt offeringⁱ to him. Then you will be healed, and you will know why his hand^j has not been lifted from you.”

⁴The Philistines asked, “What guilt offering should we send to him?”

They replied, “Five gold tumors and five gold rats, according to the number^k of the Philistine rulers, because the same plague^l has struck both you and your rulers. ⁵Make models of the tumors^m and of the rats that are destroying the country, and give gloryⁿ to Israel’s god. Perhaps he will lift his hand from you and your gods and your land. ⁶Why do you harden^o your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh did? When Israel’s god dealt harshly with them,^p did they^q not send the Israelites out so they could go on their way?

⁷“Now then, get a new cart^r ready, with two cows that have calved and have never been yoked.^s Hitch the cows to the cart, but take their calves away and pen them up. ⁸Take the ark of the Lord and put it on the cart, and in a chest beside it put the gold objects you are sending back to him as a guilt offering. Send it on its way, ⁹but keep watching it. If it goes up to its own territory, toward Beth Shemesh,^t then the Lord has brought this great disaster on us. But if it does not, then we will know that it was not his hand that struck us but that it happened to us by chance.”

¹⁰So they did this. They took two such cows and hitched them to the cart and penned up their calves. ¹¹They placed the ark of the Lord on the cart and along with it the chest containing the gold rats and the models of the tumors. ¹²Then the cows went straight up toward Beth Shemesh, keeping on the road and lowing all the way; they did not turn to the right or to the left. The rulers of the Philistines followed them as far as the border of Beth Shemesh.

¹³Now the people of Beth Shemesh were harvesting their wheat^u in the valley, and when they looked up and saw the ark, they rejoiced at the sight. ¹⁴The cart came to the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh, and there it stopped beside a large rock. The people chopped up the wood of the cart and sacrificed the cows as a burnt offering^v to the Lord. ¹⁵The Levites^w took down the ark of the Lord, together with the chest containing the gold objects, and placed them on the large rock.^x On that day the people of Beth Shemesh^y offered burnt offerings and made sacrifices to the Lord. ¹⁶The five rulers of the Philistines saw all this and then returned that same day to Ekron.

¹⁷These are the gold tumors the Philistines sent as a guilt offering to the Lord—one each^z for Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath and Ekron. ¹⁸And the number of the gold rats was according to the number of Philistine towns belonging to the five rulers—the fortified towns with their country villages. The large rock on which the Levites set the ark of the Lord is a witness to this day in the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh.

¹⁹But God struck down^a some of the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh, putting seventy^a of them to death because they looked^b into the ark of the Lord. The people mourned because of the heavy blow the Lord had dealt them. ²⁰And the people of Beth Shemesh asked, “Who can stand^c in the presence of the Lord, this holy^d God? To whom will the ark go up from here?”

²¹Then they sent messengers to the people of Kiriath Jearim,^e saying, “The Philistines have returned the ark of the Lord. Come down and take it up to your town.”

7So the men of Kiriath Jearim came and took up the ark^f of the Lord. They brought it to Abinadab’s^g house on the hill and consecrated Eleazar his son to guard the ark of the Lord. ²The ark remained at Kiriath Jearim^h a long time—twenty years in all.

Samuel Subdues the Philistines at Mizpah

Then all the people of Israel turned back to the Lord.^{i 3}So Samuel said to all the Israelites, “If you are returning^j to the Lord with all your hearts, then rid^k yourselves of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths^l and commit^m yourselves to the Lord and serve him only,ⁿ and he will deliver^o you out of the hand of the Philistines.” ⁴So the Israelites…