1 Samuel 4 Samuels words came to all Israel. Israel went out to battle against the Philistines. They camped near Ebenezer while the Philistines camped at Aphek.

VIN⁽ⁱ⁾ ¹ Samuels words came to all Israel. Israel went out to battle against the Philistines. They camped near Ebenezer while the Philistines 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 had returned to the camp the elders of Israel said, Why has the LORD struck us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of Shiloh that it may go with us and save us out of the hand of our enemies. ⁴ So the people sent to Shiloh and they brought from there the ark of the covenant of the LORD Almighty, who sits above the cherubim. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God. ⁵ When the ark of the LORD's covenant came into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth resounded. ⁶ When the Philistines heard the noise, they asked: "What is all this shouting in the Hebrew camp?" The Philistines found out that the LORD's ark was brought into the camp. ⁷ and the Philistines were terrified. "God has come into the camp," they said. "Woe to us, because nothing like this has ever happened before! ⁸ Woe to 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 Be strong and fight like men, O, Philistines, so that you may not be servants to the Hebrews, as they have been to you. Be men and fight! ¹⁰ So the Philistines fought and Israel was defeated and each man fled to his tent, for the slaughter was very great. Thirty thousand foot soldiers from Israel fell. ¹¹ The Ark of God was captured, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phineas, died. ¹² That very same day, a Benjaminite man 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 of this commotion?" Then the man quickly came and told Eli. ¹⁵ Now Eli was ninety-eight years old; and his eyes were set, so that he could not see. ¹⁶ The man said to Eli, "I've just come from the battle line, and I escaped from the battle today." He asked, "What happened, my son?" ¹⁷ The man who brought the news answered, Israel has fled before the Philistines and there has been a great slaughter among the people. Your two sons Hophni and Phinehas are dead, and the ark of God has been captured. ¹⁸ Soon as he mentioned the ark of God, Eli fell backward from his seat by the gate, and his back was broken, and he died; for he was an old man and heavy. Now he had judged Israel twenty years. ¹⁹ His daughter-in-law, Phinehas' wife, was pregnant, near the time of delivery. When she heard the news that the ark of God was taken and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she went into labour and gave birth, but was overcome by her pains. ²⁰ As she was dying the women attending her said, Don't be afraid, for you have given birth to a son. But she didn't answer, neither did she pay any attention. ²¹ And she called the child Ichabod, saying, The glory has departed from Israel, because of the taking of the ark of God, and because of her father-in-law and her husband. ²² And she said, The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been taken.