17 Then the one who brought the news replied, “Israel has fled before the Philistines and there has also been a great slaughter among the people, and your two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God has been taken.” 18 When he mentioned the ark of God, [a](A)Eli fell off the seat backward beside the gate, and his neck was broken and he died, for [b]he was old and heavy. Thus he judged Israel forty years.

19 Now his daughter-in-law, Phinehas’s wife, was pregnant and about to give birth; and when she heard the news that the ark of God was taken and that her father-in-law and her husband had died, she kneeled down and gave birth, for her pains came upon her.

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Footnotes

  1. 1 Samuel 4:18 Lit he
  2. 1 Samuel 4:18 Lit the man