Old/New Testament
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.
The Death of Eli
12 That very same day, a man who was a descendant of Benjamin ran from the battle line and came to Shiloh, with his garments torn and dirt on his head. 13 When he arrived, Eli was sitting there on a seat beside the road, watching because his heart trembled for the Ark of God. The man went into the town to give the report, and the whole town cried out. 14 Eli heard the sound of the cry and asked, “What is the meaning[f] of this commotion?” Then the man quickly came and told Eli. 15 Now Eli was 98 years old, and his vision had failed.[g]
16 The man told Eli, “I’ve just come from the battle line, and I escaped from the battle today.”
He asked, “What happened, my son?”
17 The messenger answered, “Israel fled from the Philistines and the people suffered a great defeat as well. Moreover, your two sons, Hophni and Phineas, are dead, and the Ark of God was captured.”
18 When he mentioned the Ark of God, Eli[h] fell off the seat backwards by the side of the gate. His neck was broken and he died, since he was old and heavy. Eli had judged Israel for 40 years.
Ichabod is Born
19 Eli’s[i] daughter-in-law, the wife of Phineas, was pregnant and ready to give birth. When she heard the report about the capture of the Ark of God and that her father-in-law and husband were dead, she crouched down and gave birth, because her labor pains suddenly began. 20 As she was about to die, the women standing around her said, “Don’t be afraid! You’ve given birth to a son.” But she did not respond or pay attention. 21 She had named the boy Ichabod,[j] saying, “Glory has departed from Israel,” because the Ark of God had been captured and because her father-in-law and husband were dead.[k] 22 She said, “Glory has departed from Israel, because the Ark of God has been captured.”
The Philistines’ Troubles because of the Ark
5 The Philistines took the Ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. 2 Then the Philistines took the Ark of God, brought it to the temple of Dagon,[l] and placed it beside Dagon. 3 When the people of Ashdod got up the next morning, there was Dagon, lying on the ground in front of the Ark of the Lord. They took Dagon and put him back in his place. 4 But when they got up the next morning, there was Dagon, lying on the ground again in front of the Ark of the Lord. Dagon’s head and both of his arms[m] were broken off and lying on the threshold.[n] Only the trunk of[o] Dagon was left intact.[p] 5 This is why neither the priests of Dagon nor anyone who enters the temple of Dagon step on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day.
6 The Lord heavily oppressed the people of Ashdod, devastating and afflicting Ashdod and its territories with tumors of the groin. 7 When the men of Ashdod saw how things were, they said, “Don’t let the Ark of the God of Israel stay with us, because he is severely attacking us and our god Dagon.” 8 They sent messengers[q] and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines and asked, “What are we to do with the Ark of the God of Israel?”
They said, “Let the Ark of the God of Israel move to Gath.” So they moved the Ark of the God of Israel.
9 After they moved it, the Lord moved against the town, causing[r] a very great panic. He struck the men of the town, from young to old with tumors of the groin. 10 Then they sent the Ark of God to Ekron. When the Ark of God arrived in Ekron, the people of Ekron cried out, “They have brought the Ark of the God of Israel to us to kill us and our people!”
11 They sent messengers[s] and gathered together all the Philistine lords: “Send away the Ark of the God of Israel, and let it return to where it belongs so that it does not kill us and our people.” Meanwhile, a deadly panic had spread all over the town, and God kept on pressuring[t] them there. 12 The people who did not die were afflicted with tumors of the groin, and the cry of the town went up to heaven.
The Philistines Return the Ark to Israel
6 The Ark of the Lord remained in Philistine territory[u] for seven months. 2 The Philistines summoned the priests and diviners and asked, “What should we do about the Ark of the Lord? Tell us how we should send it back to its place.”
3 They said, “If you send the Ark of the God of Israel back, don’t send it empty, but rather be sure to send back to him a guilt offering. Then you will be healed and will know why his oppression[v] has not been removed from you.”
4 They asked, “What is the guilt offering that we should send back to him?”
“Five gold tumors and five gold mice,” they answered, “according to the number of the lords of the Philistines, since the same plague was on all of you and on your lords. 5 Make images of your tumors and images of the mice that are destroying your land, and you are to give glory to the God of Israel. Perhaps he will remove his pressure from you, your gods, and your land. 6 Why should you harden your hearts just as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? Isn’t it true that after God[w] toyed with them, they let Israel[x] go, and off they went?
7 “So make a new cart, and take two milk cows that have never had a yoke on them. Hitch the cows to the cart and take their calves away from them and back to the house. 8 Take the Ark of the Lord, put it on the cart, and put the gold objects that you are returning to him as a guilt offering in a box beside it. Then send it away and let it go. 9 Keep watching it. If it goes up along the road to its own territory to Beth-shemesh, it’s the Lord[y] who has done this great evil to us. But if it does not, then we will know that he wasn’t pressuring us. It happened to us as a natural event.”
10 The men did this. They took two milk cows, hitched them to the cart, and penned up their calves in the house. 11 They put the Ark of the Lord, the box, the gold mice, and the images of their tumors on the cart. 12 The cows took a straight path along the road to Beth-shemesh. They stayed on the highway, lowing as they went, and did not turn to the right or the left. The Philistine lords followed them as far as the border of Beth-shemesh.
13 Now the people of Beth-shemesh were gathering their wheat harvest in the valley. They looked up, saw the Ark, and rejoiced to see it. 14 The cart came to the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh, and stopped there. In that place there was a large stone. They broke up the wood from the cart, and offered up the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord. 15 The descendants of Levi took down the Ark of the Lord, along with the box that was with it, containing the objects of gold, and they put them on the large stone. The men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and made sacrifices to the Lord that day. 16 When the five Philistine lords saw this, they returned to Ekron that very day.
17 These are the gold tumors that the Philistines returned as a guilt offering to the Lord: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, and one for Ekron. 18 The gold mice represented[z] the number of all the Philistine towns belonging to the five lords, both fortified towns and unwalled villages. The large stone, beside which they put the Ark of the Lord, is a witness to this day in the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh.
19 God struck down the men of Beth-shemesh because they had looked into the Ark of the Lord. He struck down 50,070[aa] men among the people, and the people mourned because the Lord struck down the people with a great slaughter. 20 The men of Beth-shemesh asked themselves, “Who can stand in the presence of the Lord, this holy God? And to whom will the Ark[ab] go from here?”[ac]
21 They sent messengers to the residents of Kiriath-jearim, who told them, “The Philistines have returned the Ark of the Lord. Come down and take it up with you.”
Jesus Sends Out the Twelve(A)
9 Jesus[a] called the Twelve together and gave them power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases. 2 Then he sent them to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. 3 He told them, “Don’t take anything along on your trip—no walking stick, traveling bag, bread, money, or even an extra shirt.[b] 4 When you visit a home and stay there, and go out from there, 5 if people don’t welcome you, when you leave that city, shake its dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” 6 So they left and went from village to village, spreading the good news and healing diseases everywhere.
Herod Tries to See Jesus(B)
7 Now Herod the tetrarch heard about everything that was happening. He was puzzled because it was said by some that John had been raised from the dead, 8 by others that Elijah had appeared, and by still others that one of the ancient prophets had come back to life. 9 Herod said, “I beheaded John. But who is this man I’m hearing so much about?” So Herod[c] kept trying to see Jesus.[d]
Jesus Feeds More than Five Thousand People(C)
10 The apostles came back and told Jesus[e] everything they had done. Then he took them away with him privately to a city called Bethsaida. 11 But the crowds found out about this and followed him. He welcomed them and began to speak to them about the kingdom of God and to heal those who needed healing.
12 As the day was drawing to a close, the Twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away to the neighboring villages and farms so they can rest and get some food, because we are here in a deserted place.”
13 But he told them, “You give them something to eat.”
They replied, “We have nothing more than five loaves of bread and two fish—unless we go and buy food for all these people.”
14 Now there were about 5,000 men. So he told his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about 50.” 15 They did this and got all of them seated. 16 Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and blessed them. Then he broke the loaves in pieces and kept giving them to the disciples to pass on to the crowd. 17 All of them ate and were filled. When they collected the leftover pieces, there were twelve baskets.
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