4 ¹ Then Samuel would speak to the whole nation of Israel.

The Philistines Capture the Sacred Chest

One day the Israelites went out to fight the Philistines. They set up camp near Ebenezer, and the Philistines camped at Aphek. ² The Philistines made a fierce attack. They defeated the Israelites and killed about 4,000 of them.

³ The Israelite army returned to their camp, and the leaders said, “Why did the Lord let us lose to the Philistines today? Let's get the sacred chest where the Lord's agreement with Israel is kept. Then the Lord^[a] will help us and rescue us from our enemies.”

^4 (A) The army sent some soldiers to bring back the sacred chest from Shiloh, because the Lord All-Powerful has his throne on the winged creatures on top of the chest.

As Eli's two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, ⁵ brought the chest into camp, the army cheered so loudly that the ground shook. ⁶ The Philistines heard the noise and said, “What are those Hebrews shouting about?”

When the Philistines learned that the sacred chest had been brought into the camp, ⁷ they were scared to death and said:

The gods have come into their camp. Now we're in real trouble! Nothing like this has ever happened to us before. ⁸ We're in big trouble! Who can save us from these powerful gods? They're the same gods who made all those horrible things happen to the Egyptians in the desert.

⁹ Philistines, be brave and fight hard! If you don't, those Hebrews will rule us, just as we've been ruling them. Fight and don't be afraid.

¹⁰ The Philistines did fight. They killed 30,000 Israelite soldiers, and all the rest ran off to their homes. ¹¹ Hophni and Phinehas were killed, and the sacred chest was captured.

Eli Dies

¹² That same day a soldier from the tribe of Benjamin ran from the battlefront to Shiloh. He had torn his clothes and put dirt on his head to show his sorrow. ¹³ He went into town and told the news about the battle, and everyone started crying.

Eli was afraid that something might happen to the sacred chest. So he was sitting on his chair beside the road, just waiting. ^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^[b] of Israel for 40 years.

¹⁹ The wife of Phinehas was about to give birth. And soon after she heard that the sacred chest had been captured and that her husband and his father had died, her baby came. The birth was very hard, ²⁰ and she was dying. But the women taking care of her said, “Don't be afraid—it's a boy!”

She didn't pay any attention to them. ^21-22 Instead she kept thinking about losing her husband and her father-in-law. So she said, “My son will be named Ichabod,^[c] because the glory of Israel left our country when the sacred chest was captured.”

God Causes Trouble for the Philistines

5 The Philistines took the sacred chest from near Ebenezer to the town of Ashdod. ² They brought it into the temple of their god Dagon and put it next to the statue of Dagon, which they worshiped.

³ When the people of Ashdod got up early the next morning, they found the statue lying facedown on the floor in front of the sacred chest. They put the statue back where it belonged. ⁴ But early the next morning, it had fallen over again and was lying facedown on the floor in front of the chest. The body of the statue was still in one piece, but its head and both hands had broken off and were lying on the stone floor in the doorway. ⁵ This is why the priests and everyone else step over that part of the doorway when they enter the temple of Dagon in Ashdod.

⁶ The Lord caused a lot of trouble for the people of Ashdod and their neighbors. He made sores break out all over their bodies,^[d] and everyone was in a panic.^{[e] 7} Finally, they said, “The God of Israel did this. He is the one who caused all this trouble for us and our god Dagon. We've got to get rid of this chest.”

⁸ The people of Ashdod invited all the Philistine rulers to come to Ashdod, and they asked them, “What can we do with the sacred chest that belongs to the God of Israel?”

“Send it to Gath,” the rulers answered. But after they took it there, ⁹ the Lord made sores break out on everyone in town. The people of Gath were frightened, ¹⁰ so they sent the sacred chest to Ekron. But before they could take it through the town gates, the people of Ekron started screaming, “They've brought the sacred chest that belongs to the God of Israel! It will kill us and our families too!”

The Philistines Send Back the Sacred Chest

¹¹ The people of Ekron called for another meeting of the Philistine rulers and told them, “Send this chest back where it belongs. Then it won't kill us.”

Everyone was in a panic, because God was causing a lot of people to die, ¹² and those who had survived were suffering from the sores. They all cried to their gods for help.

6 After the sacred chest had been in Philistia for seven months,^{[f] 2} the Philistines called in their priests and fortunetellers, and asked, “What should we do with this sacred chest? Tell us how to send it back where it belongs!”

³ “Don't send it back without a gift,” the priests and fortunetellers answered. “Send along something to Israel's God to make up for taking the chest in the first place. Then you will be healed, and you will find out why the Lord was causing you so much trouble.”

⁴ “What should we send?” the Philistines asked.

The priests and fortunetellers answered:

There are five Philistine rulers, and they all have the same disease that you have. ⁵ So make five gold models of the sores and five gold models of the rats that are wiping out your crops. If you honor the God of Israel with this gift, maybe he will stop causing trouble for you and your gods and your crops. ⁶ Don't be like the Egyptians and their king. They were stubborn, but when Israel's God was finished with them, they had to let Israel go.

⁷ Get a new cart and two cows that have young calves and that have never pulled a cart. Hitch the cows to the cart, but take the calves back to their barn. ⁸ Then put the chest on the cart. Put the gold rats and sores into a bag and put it on the cart next to the chest. Then send it on its way.

⁹ Watch to see if the chest goes on up the road to the Israelite town of Beth-Shemesh. If it goes back to its own country, you will know that it was the Lord who made us suffer so badly. But if the chest doesn't go back to its own country, then the Lord had nothing to do with the disease that hit us—it was simply bad luck.

¹⁰ The Philistines followed their advice. They hitched up the two cows to the cart, but they kept their calves in a barn. ¹¹ Then they put the chest on the cart, along with the bag that had the gold rats and sores in it.

¹² The cows went straight up the road toward Beth-Shemesh, mooing as they went. The Philistine rulers followed them until they got close to Beth-Shemesh.

¹³ The people of Beth-Shemesh were harvesting their wheat^[g] in the valley. When they looked up and saw the chest, they were so happy that they stopped working and started celebrating.

^14-15 The cows left the road and pulled the cart into a field that belonged to Joshua from Beth-Shemesh, and they stopped beside a huge rock. Some men from the tribe of Levi were there. So they took the chest off the cart and placed it on the rock, and then they did the same thing with the bag of gold rats and sores. A few other people chopped up the cart and made a fire. They killed the cows and burned them as sacrifices to the Lord. After that, they offered more sacrifices.

¹⁶ When the five rulers of the Philistines saw what had happened, they went back to Ekron that same day.

¹⁷ That is how the Philistines sent gifts to the Lord to make up for taking the sacred chest. They sent five gold sores, one each for their towns of Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron. ¹⁸ They also sent one gold rat for each walled town and for every village that the five Philistine rulers controlled. The huge stone^[h] where the Levites set the chest is still there in Joshua's field as a reminder of what happened.

The Sacred Chest Is Sent to Kiriath-Jearim

¹⁹ Some of the men of Beth-Shemesh looked inside the sacred chest, and the Lord God killed 70^[i] of them. This made the people of Beth-Shemesh very sad, ²⁰ and they started saying, “No other God is like the Lord! Who can go near him and stay alive? We'll have to send the chest away from here. But where can we send it?”

²¹ They sent messengers to tell the people of Kiriath-Jearim, “The Philistines have sent back the sacred chest. Why don't you take it and keep it there with you?”

Instructions for the Twelve Apostles

(Matthew 10.5-15; Mark 6.7-13)

9 Jesus called together his twelve apostles and gave them complete power over all demons and diseases. ² Then he sent them to tell about God's kingdom and to heal the sick. ^3 (A) He told them, “Don't take anything with you! Don't take a walking stick or a traveling bag or food or money or even a change of clothes. ⁴ When you are welcomed into a home, stay there until you leave that town. ^5 (B) If people won't welcome you, leave the town and shake the dust from your feet^[a] as a warning to them.”

⁶ The apostles left and went from village to village, telling the good news and healing people everywhere.

Herod Is Worried

(Matthew 14.1-12; Mark 6.14-29)

^7 (C) Herod^[b] the ruler heard about all that was happening, and he was worried. Some people were saying John the Baptist had come back to life. ⁸ Others were saying Elijah had come^[c] or one of the prophets from long ago had come back to life. ⁹ But Herod said, “I had John's head cut off! Who is this I hear so much about?” Herod was eager to meet Jesus.

Jesus Feeds Five Thousand

(Matthew 14.13-21; Mark 6.30-44; John 6.1-14)

¹⁰ The apostles came back and told Jesus everything they had done. He then took them with him to the village of Bethsaida, where they could be alone. ¹¹ But a lot of people found out about this and followed him. Jesus welcomed them. He spoke about God's kingdom and healed everyone who was sick.

¹² Late in the afternoon the twelve apostles came to Jesus and said, “Send the crowd to the villages and farms around here. They need to find a place to stay and something to eat. There is nothing in this place. It's like a desert!”

¹³ Jesus answered, “You give them something to eat.”

But they replied, “We have only five small loaves of bread^[d] and two fish. If we are going to feed all these people, we will have to go and buy food.” ¹⁴ There were about 5,000 men in the crowd.

Jesus said to his disciples, “Tell the people to sit in groups of 50.” ¹⁵ They did this, and all the people sat down. ¹⁶ Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish. He looked up toward heaven and blessed the food. Then he broke the bread and fish and handed them to his disciples to give to the people.

¹⁷ Everyone ate all they wanted. What was left over filled twelve baskets.