1   So Samuel's word had authority throughout Israel. And the time came when the Philistines mustered for battle against Israel, ^note and the Israelites went out to meet them. The Israelites encamped at Eben-ezer and the Philistines at Aphek. 2   The Philistines drew up their lines facing the Israelites, and when they joined battle the Israelites were routed by the Philistines, who killed about four thousand men on the field. 3   When the army got back to the camp, the elders of Israel asked, ‘Why did the Lord let us be routed today by the Philistines? Let us fetch the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord from Shiloh to go with us and deliver us from the power of our enemies.’ 4   So the people sent to Shiloh and fetched the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of Hosts, who is enthroned upon the cherubim; Eli's two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the Ark. 5   When the Ark came into the camp all the Israelites greeted it with a great shout, and the earth rang with the shouting. 6   The Philistines heard the noise and asked, ‘What is this great shouting in the camp of the Hebrews?’ When they knew that the Ark of the Lord had come into the camp, 7   they were afraid and cried, ‘A god has come into the camp. We are lost! No such thing has ever happened before. 8   We are utterly lost! Who can deliver us from the power of these mighty gods? These are the very gods who broke the Egyptians and crushed them in the wilderness. 9   Courage, Philistines, and act like men, or you will become slaves to the Hebrews as they were yours. 10   Be men, and fight!’ The Philistines then gave battle, and the Israelites were defeated and fled to their homes. It was a great defeat, and thirty thousand Israelite foot-soldiers perished. 11   The Ark of God was taken, and Eli's two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were killed.

12   A Benjamite ran from the battlefield and reached Shiloh on the same day, his clothes rent and dust on his head. 13   When he arrived Eli was sitting on a seat by the road to Mizpah, for he was deeply troubled about the Ark of God. The man entered the city with his news, and all the people cried out in horror. 14   When Eli heard it, he asked, ‘What does this uproar mean?’ 15   The man hurried to Eli and told him. Eli was ninety-eight years old and sat staring with sightless eyes; 16   so the man said to him, ‘I am the man who has just arrived from the battle; this very day I have escaped from the field.’ Eli asked, ‘What is the news, my son?’ 17   The runner answered, ‘The Israelites have fled from the Philistines; utter panic has struck the army; your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are killed, and the Ark of God is taken.’ 18   At the mention

The struggle with the Philistines of the Ark of God, Eli fell backwards from his seat by the gate and broke his neck, for he was old and heavy. So he died; he had been judge over Israel for forty years. 19   His daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was with child and near her time, and when she heard of the capture of the Ark and the deaths of her father-in-law and her husband, her labour suddenly began and she crouched down and was delivered. 20   As she lay dying, the women who attended her said, ‘Do not be afraid; you have a son.’ 21   But she did not answer or heed what they said. Then they named the boy Ichabod, ^note saying, ‘Glory has departed from Israel’ (in allusion to the capture of the Ark of God and the death of her father-in-law and her husband); 22   ‘Glory has departed from Israel,’ they said, ‘because the Ark of God is taken.’

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