⁴⁴ But they presumed to go up to the heights of the hill country, even though the ark of the covenant of the Lord and Moses had not left the camp.^(A)

⁴³ Although I told you, you would not listen. You rebelled against the command of the Lord and presumptuously went up into the hill country.^(A)

³ When the troops came to the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why has the Lord put us to rout today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord here from Shiloh, so that he may come among us and save us from the power of our enemies.”^{(A) 4} So the people sent to Shiloh and brought from there the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts, who is enthroned on the cherubim. The two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.^(B)

⁵ When the ark of the covenant of the Lord came into the camp, all Israel gave a mighty shout, so that the earth resounded.^{(C) 6} When the Philistines heard the noise of the shouting, they said, “What does this great shouting in the camp of the Hebrews mean?” When they learned that the ark of the Lord had come to the camp,^{(D) 7} the Philistines were afraid, for they said, “Gods have^[a] come into the camp.” They also said, “Woe to us! For nothing like this has happened before. ⁸ Woe to us! Who can deliver us from the power of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with every sort of plague in the wilderness. ⁹ Take courage, and be men, O Philistines, in order not to become slaves to the Hebrews as they have been to you; be men and fight.”^(E)

¹⁰ So the Philistines fought; Israel was defeated, and they fled, everyone to his home. There was a very great slaughter, for there fell of Israel thirty thousand foot soldiers.^{(F) 11} The ark of God was captured, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died.^(G)

⁶ Moses sent them to the war, a thousand from each tribe, along with Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest,^[a] with the vessels of the sanctuary and the trumpets for sounding the alarm in his hand.^(A)

³⁰ But whoever acts high-handedly, whether native-born or an alien, affronts the Lord and shall be cut off from among the people.

³³ So they set out from the mount of the Lord three days’ journey with the ark of the covenant of the Lord going before them three days’ journey, to seek out a resting place for them,^(A)