The Philistines Capture the Ark

4 What Samuel had to say was directed to all Israel, and Israel went out to engage the Philistines in battle. The Israelis^[a] were camped at Ebenezer, while the Philistines were camped at Aphek. 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 men on the battlefield.

³ When the people came to the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why did the Lord defeat us today when we fought the Philistines? Let’s take the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord from Shiloh, so it^[b] may go with us and deliver us from the power of our enemies.” ⁴ So the people sent word^[c] to Shiloh and took away from there the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of the Heavenly Armies, who sits above^[d] the cherubim.

Now the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phineas, 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 gave a great shout and the earth reverberated! ⁶ When the Philistines heard the noise of the shout, they asked, “What is this noise coming from shouting in the camp of the Hebrews?” Then they realized that the Ark of the Lord had come into the camp, ⁷ and the Philistines were terrified. “God has come^[e] into the camp,” they said. “How terrible for us, because nothing like this has ever happened before! ⁸ How terrible for us! Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the desert. ⁹ Philistines, be strong and be men, or you will become slaves to the Hebrews just as they have been slaves to you! Be men and fight!”

¹⁰ The Philistines fought and Israel was defeated; each of them fled to his own tent. It was a very great slaughter, and 30,000 soldiers of Israel died. ¹¹ The Ark of God was captured, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phineas, died.