1 Samuel 4:1-11
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.
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- 1 Samuel 4:1 At the transition from chapter 3 to chapter 4, the Greek Old Testament has two blocks of additional material which are not in the Hebrew text. They are marked by half-brackets in the following: 21 The Lord continued to appear in Shiloh, because at Shiloh the Lord revealed himself to Samuel by the word of the Lord. ⎣So Samuel was confirmed as a prophet of the Lord for all Israel, from one end of the land to the other end.⎦ 41 So the word of Samuel came to all Israel. ⎣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.⎦ Israel went out to meet the Philistines in battle. The first omission occurs between two occurrences of identical letters in Hebrew. The second omission from the Hebrew text occurs between two occurrences of the word Israel.
- 1 Samuel 4:3 Or he
- 1 Samuel 4:5 Or the earth echoed it
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.