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1 Samuel 4:17-19
New Catholic Bible
1 Samuel 4:17-19
New Catholic Bible
17 The messenger answered, “Israel has fled from before the Philistines, and there has been a great slaughter. Your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the Ark of God has been captured.” 18 At the mention of the Ark of God, he fell over backwards off his seat beside the gate, and he broke his neck and died, for he was a very old man and quite heavy. He had been a judge[a] of Israel for forty years.
19 [b]His daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant. When she heard the news that the Ark of God had been captured, and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she sunk to her knees and gave birth, for she was overcome by her labor pains.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 1 Samuel 4:18 Had been a judge: in the sense that he had been the high priest; forty years is a round number signifying a generation.
- 1 Samuel 4:19 This passage shows how the devastating losses for Israel overshadowed what otherwise would be a hopeful sign with the birth of Phinehas’s son Ichabod.
