^14-15 He was 98 years old and blind, but he could hear everyone crying, and he asked, “What's all that noise?”

The soldier hurried over and told Eli, ¹⁶ “I escaped from the fighting today and ran here.”

“Young man, what happened?” Eli asked.

¹⁷ “Israel ran away from the Philistines,” the soldier answered. “Many of our people were killed, including your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas. But worst of all, the sacred chest was captured.”

¹⁸ Eli was still sitting on a chair beside the wall of the town gate. And when the man said that the Philistines had taken the sacred chest, Eli fell backwards. He was a very heavy old man, and the fall broke his neck and killed him. He had been a leader^[a] of Israel for 40 years.