Chronological
4 1 and he passed them on to the people of Israel.
At that time Israel was at war with the Philistines. The Israeli army was camped near Ebenezer, the Philistines at Aphek. 2 And the Philistines defeated Israel, killing four thousand of them. 3 After the battle was over, the army of Israel returned to their camp and their leaders discussed why the Lord had let them be defeated.
“Let’s bring the Ark here from Shiloh,” they said. “If we carry it into battle with us, the Lord will be among us and he will surely save us from our enemies.”
4 So they sent for the Ark of the Lord of heaven who is enthroned above the angels. Hophni and Phinehas, the sons of Eli, accompanied it into the battle. 5 When the Israelis saw the Ark coming, their shout of joy was so loud that it almost made the ground shake!
6 “What’s going on?” the Philistines asked. “What’s all the shouting about over in the camp of the Hebrews?”
When they were told it was because the Ark of the Lord had arrived, 7 they panicked.
“God has come into their camp!” they cried out. “Woe upon us, for we have never had to face anything like this before! 8 Who can save us from these mighty gods of Israel? They are the same gods who destroyed the Egyptians with plagues when Israel was in the wilderness. 9 Fight as you never have before, O Philistines, or we will become their slaves just as they have been ours.”
10 So the Philistines fought desperately and Israel was defeated again. Thirty thousand men of Israel died that day, and the remainder fled to their tents. 11 And the Ark of God was captured, and Hophni and Phinehas were killed.
12 A man from the tribe of Benjamin ran from the battle and arrived at Shiloh the same day with his clothes torn and dirt on his head.[a] 13 Eli was waiting beside the road to hear the news of the battle, for his heart trembled for the safety of the Ark of God. As the messenger from the battlefront arrived and told what had happened, a great cry arose throughout the city.
14 “What is all the noise about?” Eli asked. And the messenger rushed over to Eli and told him what had happened. 15 (Eli was ninety-eight years old and was blind.)
16 “I have just come from the battle—I was there today,” he told Eli, 17 “and Israel has been defeated and thousands of the Israeli troops are dead on the battlefield. Hophni and Phinehas were killed too, and the Ark has been captured.”
18 When the messenger mentioned what had happened to the Ark, Eli fell backward from his seat beside the gate and his neck was broken by the fall, and he died (for he was old and fat). He had judged Israel for forty years.
19 When Eli’s daughter-in-law, Phinehas’ wife, who was pregnant, heard that the Ark had been captured and that her husband and father-in-law were dead, her labor pains suddenly began. 20 Just before she died, the women who were attending her told her that everything was all right and that the baby was a boy. But she did not reply or respond in any way. 21-22 Then she murmured, “Name the child ‘Ichabod,’ for Israel’s glory is gone.” (Ichabod means “there is no glory.” She named him this because the Ark of God had been captured and because her husband and her father-in-law were dead.)
5 1-2 The Philistines took the captured Ark of God from the battleground at Ebenezer to the temple of their idol Dagon in the city of Ashdod. 3 But when the local citizens went to see it the next morning, Dagon had fallen with his face to the ground before the Ark of Jehovah! They set him up again, 4 but the next morning the same thing had happened—the idol had fallen face down before the Ark of the Lord again. This time his head and hands had been cut off and were lying in the doorway; only the trunk of his body was left intact. 5 (That is why to this day neither the priests of Dagon nor his worshipers will walk on the threshold of the temple of Dagon in Ashdod.)
6 Then the Lord began to destroy the people of Ashdod and the nearby villages with bubonic plague. 7 When the people realized what was happening, they exclaimed, “We can’t keep the Ark of the God of Israel here any longer. We will all perish along with our god Dagon.”
8 So they called a conference of the mayors of the five cities of the Philistines to decide how to dispose of the Ark. The decision was to take it to Gath. 9 But when the Ark arrived at Gath, the Lord began destroying its people, young and old, with the plague, and there was a great panic. 10 So they sent the Ark to Ekron, but when the people of Ekron saw it coming they cried out, “They are bringing the Ark of the God of Israel here to kill us too!”
11 So they summoned the mayors again and begged them to send the Ark back to its own country, lest the entire city die. For the plague had already begun, and great fear was sweeping across the city. 12 Those who didn’t die were deathly ill; and there was weeping everywhere.
6 The Ark remained in the Philistine country for seven months in all. 2 Then the Philistines called for their priests and diviners and asked them, “What shall we do about the Ark of God? What sort of gift shall we send with it when we return it to its own land?”
3 “Yes, send it back with a gift,” they were told. “Send a guilt offering so that the plague will stop. Then, if it doesn’t, you will know God didn’t send the plague upon you after all.”
4-5 “What guilt offering shall we send?” they asked.
And they were told, “Send five gold models of the tumor caused by the plague, and five gold models of the rats that have ravaged the whole land—the capital cities and villages alike. If you send these gifts and then praise the God of Israel, perhaps he will stop persecuting you and your god. 6 Don’t be stubborn and rebellious as Pharaoh and the Egyptians were. They wouldn’t let Israel go until God had destroyed them with dreadful plagues. 7 Now build a new cart and hitch to it two cows that have just had calves—cows that never before have been yoked—and shut their calves away from them in the barn. 8 Place the Ark of God on the cart beside a chest containing the gold models of the rats and tumors, and let the cows go wherever they want to. 9 If they cross the border of our land and go into Beth-shemesh, then you will know that it was God who brought this great evil upon us; if they don’t but return to their calves,[b] then we will know that the plague was simply a coincidence and was not sent by God at all.”
10 So these instructions were carried out. Two cows with newborn calves were hitched to the cart and their calves were shut up in the barn. 11 Then the Ark of the Lord and the chest containing the gold rats and tumors were placed upon the cart. 12 And sure enough, the cows went straight along the road toward Beth-shemesh, lowing as they went; and the Philistine mayors followed them as far as the border of Beth-shemesh. 13 The people of Beth-shemesh were reaping wheat in the valley, and when they saw the Ark, they went wild with joy!
14 The cart came into the field of a man named Joshua and stopped beside a large rock. So the people broke up the wood of the cart for a fire and killed the cows and sacrificed them to the Lord as a burnt offering. 15 Several men of the tribe of Levi lifted the Ark and the chest containing the gold rats and tumors from the cart and laid them on the rock. And many burnt offerings and sacrifices were offered to the Lord that day by the men of Beth-shemesh.
16 After the five Philistine mayors had watched for a while, they returned to Ekron that same day. 17 The five gold models of tumors which had been sent by the Philistines as a guilt offering to the Lord were gifts from the mayors of the capital cities, Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron. 18 The gold rats were to placate God for the other Philistine cities, both the fortified cities and the country villages controlled by the five capitals. (By the way, that large rock at Beth-shemesh can still be seen in the field of Joshua.) 19 But the Lord killed seventy of the men of Beth-shemesh because they looked into the Ark. And the people mourned because of the many people whom the Lord had killed.
20 “Who is able to stand before Jehovah, this holy God?” they cried out. “Where can we send the Ark from here?”
21 So they sent messengers to the people at Kiriath-jearim and told them that the Philistines had brought back the Ark of the Lord.
“Come and get it!” they begged.
7 So the men of Kiriath-jearim came and took the Ark to the hillside home of Abinadab and installed his son Eleazar to be in charge of it. 2 The Ark remained there for twenty years, and during that time all Israel was in sorrow because the Lord had seemingly abandoned them.
3 At that time Samuel said to them, “If you are really serious about wanting to return to the Lord, get rid of your foreign gods and your Ashtaroth idols. Determine to obey only the Lord; then he will rescue you from the Philistines.”
4 So they destroyed their idols of Baal and Ashtaroth and worshiped only the Lord.
5 Then Samuel told them, “Come to Mizpah, all of you, and I will pray to the Lord for you.”
6 So they gathered there and, in a great ceremony, drew water from the well and poured it out before the Lord. They also went without food all day as a sign of sorrow for their sins. So it was at Mizpah that Samuel became Israel’s judge.
7 When the Philistine leaders heard about the great crowds at Mizpah, they mobilized their army and advanced. The Israelis were badly frightened when they learned that the Philistines were approaching.
8 “Plead with God to save us!” they begged Samuel.
9 So Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it to the Lord as a whole burnt offering and pleaded with him to help Israel. And the Lord responded. 10 Just as Samuel was sacrificing the burnt offering, the Philistines arrived for battle, but the Lord spoke with a mighty voice of thunder from heaven, and they were thrown into confusion, and the Israelis routed them 11 and chased them from Mizpah to Beth-car, killing them all along the way. 12 Samuel then took a stone and placed it between Mizpah and Jeshanah and named it Ebenezer (meaning, “the Stone of Help”), for he said, “The Lord has certainly helped us!” 13 So the Philistines were subdued and didn’t invade Israel again at that time because the Lord was against them throughout the remainder of Samuel’s lifetime. 14 The Israeli cities between Ekron and Gath, which had been conquered by the Philistines, were now returned to Israel, for the Israeli army rescued them from their Philistine captors. And there was peace between Israel and the Amorites in those days.
15 Samuel continued as Israel’s judge for the remainder of his life. 16 He rode circuit annually, setting up his court first at Bethel, then Gilgal, and then Mizpah, and cases of dispute were brought to him in each of those three cities from all the surrounding territory. 17 Then he would come back to Ramah, for his home was there, and he would hear cases there too. And he built an altar to the Lord at Ramah.
8 In his old age, Samuel retired and appointed his sons as judges in his place. 2 Joel and Abijah, his oldest sons, held court in Beersheba; 3 but they were not like their father, for they were greedy for money. They accepted bribes and were very corrupt in the administration of justice. 4 Finally the leaders of Israel met in Ramah to discuss the matter with Samuel. 5 They told him that since his retirement things hadn’t been the same, for his sons were not good men.
“Give us a king like all the other nations have,” they pleaded. 6 Samuel was terribly upset and went to the Lord for advice.
7 “Do as they say,” the Lord replied, “for I am the one they are rejecting, not you—they don’t want me to be their king any longer. 8 Ever since I brought them from Egypt they have continually forsaken me and followed other gods. And now they are giving you the same treatment. 9 Do as they ask, but warn them about what it will be like to have a king!”
10 So Samuel told the people what the Lord had said:
11 “If you insist on having a king, he will conscript your sons and make them run before his chariots; 12 some will be made to lead his troops into battle, while others will be slave laborers; they will be forced to plow in the royal fields and harvest his crops without pay, and make his weapons and chariot equipment. 13 He will take your daughters from you and force them to cook and bake and make perfumes for him. 14 He will take away the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his friends. 15 He will take a tenth of your harvest and distribute it to his favorites. 16 He will demand your slaves and the finest of your youth and will use your animals for his personal gain. 17 He will demand a tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. 18 You will shed bitter tears because of this king you are demanding, but the Lord will not help you.”
19 But the people refused to listen to Samuel’s warning.
“Even so, we still want a king,” they said, 20 “for we want to be like the nations around us. He will govern us and lead us to battle.”
21 So Samuel told the Lord what the people had said, 22 and the Lord replied again, “Then do as they say and give them a king.”
So Samuel agreed and sent the men home again.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.