1 Samuel 4-6

Evangelical Heritage Version

4 So the word of Samuel came to all Israel.

Israel and the Philistines

⎣Eli was very old, and his sons kept getting worse in their wickedness in the presence of the Lord. In those days the Philistines gathered themselves together for war against Israel.⎦ ^[a]

Israel went out to meet the Philistines in battle. The Israelites camped near Ebenezer, and the Philistines camped at Aphek. ² The Philistines formed battle lines to confront the Israelites. As the battle developed, Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who killed about four thousand of the Israelites lined up on the battlefield.

³ When the people had come back into the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why has the Lord allowed us to be defeated today before the Philistines? Let us bring the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord here from Shiloh, so that it^[b] may come into our midst and save us from the hand of our enemies.”

⁴ So the people sent word to Shiloh, and from there they brought the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of Armies, who sits above the cherubim. Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, were there with the Ark of the Covenant of God. ⁵ When the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord came into the camp, all Israel shouted with a shout so loud that the earth shook.^[c]

⁶ When the Philistines heard the noise of all the shouting, they asked, “Why is there this loud shouting in the camp of the Hebrews?” They learned that the Ark of the Lord had come into the camp. ⁷ The Philistines were afraid, so they said, “A god has come into the camp.” They said, “We’re doomed! Nothing like this has happened before. ⁸ We are doomed! Who can deliver us out of the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods that struck the Egyptians with every kind of plague in the wilderness. ⁹ Be strong and act like men, you Philistines, so that you will not become slaves to the Hebrews, as they have been to you. Act like men and fight!”

¹⁰ So the Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated, and each man fled to his tent. A very great slaughter took place, in which thirty thousand foot soldiers of Israel fell. ¹¹ God’s ark was taken, and Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, died.

¹² A man from the tribe of Benjamin ran from the battlefield and came to Shiloh that same day. His clothing was torn, and his face was dirty. ¹³ When he arrived, Eli was there, sitting on his chair beside the road. He was watching, because his heart was trembling with fear for God’s ark. When the man came into the city and told them what had happened, the whole city was in an uproar. ¹⁴ When Eli heard the noise of the uproar, he said, “What does this noisy commotion mean?”

The man came quickly and told Eli what had happened. ¹⁵ Eli was ninety-eight years old. His eyes stared straight ahead^[d] because he could not see. ¹⁶ The man said to Eli, “I am the one who came from the battlefield. Today I fled from the battlefield.”

Eli said, “What was the outcome, my son?”

¹⁷ The man who brought the news answered, “Israel has fled from the Philistines, and there has also been a great slaughter among the people. In addition, your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and God’s ark has been captured.”

¹⁸ When the man mentioned God’s ark, Eli fell backwards off his seat, which was by the city gate. He broke his neck, and he died, because he was an old man, and he was overweight. He had judged Israel^[e] for forty years.

¹⁹ His daughter-in-law, Phinehas’ wife, was pregnant, ready to give birth. When she heard the news that God’s ark had been taken and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she crouched down and gave birth, because labor pains had come upon her. ²⁰ As her death approached, the women who stood by her said to her, “Don’t be afraid, for you have given birth to a son.” But she did not respond or pay attention. ²¹ She named the boy Ichabod and said, “The glory has departed from Israel.”^[f] Because God’s ark had been taken, and because of the deaths of her father-in-law and her husband, ²² she said, “The glory has departed from Israel, because God’s ark has been taken.”

The Travels of the Ark

5 After the Philistines had captured God’s ark, they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. ² The Philistines took God’s ark and brought it into the house of Dagon^[g] and set it beside Dagon. ³ When the people of Ashdod got up early the next day, there was Dagon—fallen facedown to the ground in front of the Ark of the Lord! So they took Dagon and set him in his place again. ⁴ When they got up early the following morning, it had happened again! There was Dagon, fallen facedown in front of the Ark of the Lord. The head of Dagon and both of his hands were broken off and were lying on the threshold. Only Dagon’s torso^[h] was intact. ⁵ That is why the priests of Dagon and any people who enter Dagon’s temple in Ashdod do not step on the threshold of Dagon to this day.

⁶ Then the Lord’s hand was heavy against the people of Ashdod. He devastated them and struck them with tumors.^[i] He struck Ashdod and its surrounding territory. ⁷ When the men of Ashdod saw what was taking place, they said, “The Ark of the God of Israel must not stay with us, because his hand is heavy on us and on our god Dagon.” ⁸ They called together a meeting of all the serens^[j] of the Philistines and asked, “What shall we do with the Ark of the God of Israel?”

They answered, “Let the Ark of the God of Israel be carried over to Gath.” So they carried the Ark of the God of Israel there. ⁹ But after they had carried it there, the Lord’s hand was against that city, and there was great panic. He struck the men of the city, both young and old,^[k] so that tumors broke out on them. ¹⁰ So they sent God’s ark to Ekron.

When God’s ark came to Ekron, the people of Ekron cried out, “They have brought the Ark of the God of Israel here to kill us and our people.” ¹¹ They called a meeting of all the serens of the Philistines, and they said, “Send the Ark of the God of Israel away. Let it go back to its own place, so that it does not kill us and our people.” Indeed, the threat of death caused panic throughout the whole city. The hand of God was very heavy there. ¹² The men who did not die were struck with tumors, and the outcry from the city went up to heaven.

6 The Lord’s ark remained in the country of the Philistines seven months. ² The Philistines called for the priests and the diviners^[l] and asked, “What should we do with the Lord’s ark? Advise us how we should send it back to its place.”

³ They said, “If you send away the Ark of the God of Israel, do not send it away empty, but, by all means, send it to him with a restitution offering. Then you will be healed, and you will know why his hand has not been removed from you.”^[m]

⁴ Then they said, “What restitution offering should we send to him?”

They said, “There are five serens of the Philistines, so five gold tumors and five gold mice should be sent, because the same plague was on all of you and on your serens. ⁵ Therefore you should make replicas of your tumors and figurines of the mice that are ruining your land, and you will give glory to the God of Israel. Perhaps he will lighten his hand on you, on your gods, and on your land. ⁶ Why harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? After the Lord had dealt ruthlessly with them, didn’t the Egyptians let the people go, and they departed?

⁷ “So make a new cart and take two cows that are nursing their calves, cows that have never had a yoke on them. Hitch the cows to the cart, and take their calves away from them and send them home. ⁸ Then take the Ark of the Lord and place it on the cart. Place the gold objects, which you are sending to him as a restitution offering, into a box beside the ark. Then send it on its way, and let it go on its own. ⁹ Watch it. If it goes up on the road toward the border of Israel, to Beth Shemesh, then it is their god who has inflicted this disaster on us. But if not, then we will know that it was not his hand that struck us. It was a coincidence that this happened to us.”

¹⁰ So that is what the men did. They took two cows that were nursing calves, hitched them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home. ¹¹ Then they put the Ark of the Lord on the cart, along with the box containing the gold mice and the replicas of their tumors. ¹² The cows headed straight up the road toward Beth Shemesh. They went straight along the highway without stopping, lowing as they went. They did not turn aside to the right or to the left. The serens of the Philistines followed them to the border of Beth Shemesh.

¹³ The people of Beth Shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley. They looked up and saw the Ark, and they rejoiced to see it. ¹⁴ The cart came into the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh and stopped there, near the large stone that was there. Then the people split the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord. ¹⁵ The Levites took the Lord’s ark and the box with it, which contained the gold objects, and they put them on the large stone. On that same day, the men of Beth Shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrifices to the Lord.

¹⁶ When the five serens of the Philistines had seen this, they returned to Ekron that same day.

¹⁷ This is the number of gold tumors that the Philistines sent back as a restitution offering to the Lord: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, and one for Ekron. ¹⁸ The gold mice also corresponded to the number of all the cities of the Philistines that belonged to the five serens, the fortified cities along with the rural villages. The objects were placed on the large stone^[n] on which they had placed the Ark of the Lord. That stone remains in the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh to this day. ¹⁹ The Lord struck some of the men of Beth Shemesh, because they had looked into the Ark of the Lord. He struck seventy men.^[o] Then the people mourned, because the Lord had struck the people with such a heavy blow. ²⁰ The men of Beth Shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before this holy God, the Lord? To whom can we send it^[p] to get it away from here?”

²¹ So they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath Jearim. They said, “The Philistines have sent back the Ark of the Lord. Come down and take it up for yourselves.”