1 Samuel 4-6
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 4[a]
The Defeat of the Israelites.[b] 1 Samuel’s word came to all of Israel. Now the Israelites went out to fight against the Philistines. They were camped at Ebenezer, and the Philistines were encamped in Aphek. 2 The Philistines drew up in battle line against the Israelites, and when they joined up in battle, the Israelites were defeated by the Philistines who killed about four thousand of them on the battlefield.
3 When the soldiers came back into camp, the elders of Israel asked, “Why has the Lord brought defeat upon us today at the hands of the Philistines? Let us go get the Ark of the Covenant from Shiloh so that it can go out before us and save us from the hands of our enemies.”
The Ark Is Captured. 4 So the people sent to Shiloh to bring the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of hosts who is enthroned between the cherubim.[c] The two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, 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 of the Israelites raised such a loud shout that it shook the earth.
6 When the Philistines heard the uproar, they asked, “What is this great uproar in the Hebrew camp?” When they found out that the Ark of the Lord had come into the camp, 7 the Philistines became frightened. They said, “A god has come into the camp!” They said, “Woe to us, for nothing like this has happened before. 8 Woe to us! Who will deliver us out of the hands of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the desert. 9 Be strong. Act manfully, O Philistines, or you will end up as slaves to the Hebrews, just like they were to you. Act manfully and fight!”
10 So the Philistines fought, and the Israelites were defeated, and each man fled to his own tent. The slaughter was great, for Israel lost thirty thousand foot soldiers. 11 The Ark of God was captured and Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were killed.[d]
12 The Death of Eli. That same day a Benjaminite ran from the battle line to Shiloh. His clothes were torn and there was dust on his head. 13 He came upon Eli who was sitting by the side of the road. He was watching, concerned about the Ark of God. When the man entered the city and told them what had happened, the entire city raised up a cry.
14 When Eli heard the uproar, he said, “What is the meaning of this outcry?” The man hurried over and explained it to Eli. 15 Now Eli was ninety-eight years old, and his eyesight was so poor that he could barely see. 16 The man said to Eli, “I am the one who came from the battle. I escaped from the battle today.” He asked, “How did things go, my son?” 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[e] of Israel for forty years.
19 [f]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. 20 As she was dying, the women who were standing around her said to her, “Do not fear, for you have borne a son.” But she gave no response, nor did she even look at it. 21 Then she named the child Ichabod, for she said, “The glory of God has departed from Israel,” for the Ark of God had been captured and also because of what had happened to her father-in-law and her husband. 22 For this she said, “The glory of God has departed from Israel, for the Ark of God has been captured.”
Chapter 5
Devastation Follows the Ark. 1 The Philistines then took the Ark of God, transporting it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. 2 When the Philistines took the Ark of God, they brought it into the temple of Dagon[g] and set it alongside of Dagon. 3 When the people of Ashdod got up the next morning, they found Dagon fallen down, with his face pressed to the earth, in front of the Ark of the Lord. So they picked Dagon up and put him back in his place.
4 When they rose again the next morning, they found him fallen down again, with his face pressed to the earth, in front of the Ark of the Lord. His head and both of his hands were cut off and lying in the threshold; all that was left of Dagon was his torso. 5 This is why to this day neither the priests of Dagon nor anyone who enters the temple of Dagon in Ashdod steps upon its threshold. 6 The hand of the Lord bore down upon Ashdod. He brought devastation to Ashdod and its environs, striking the people with tumors.[h]
7 [i]When the people of Ashdod saw what was happening, they said, “We must not keep the Ark of the God of Israel here with us, for his hand bears down upon us and our god Dagon.” 8 They summoned the lords of the Philistines and said to them, “What are we to do with the Ark of the God of Israel?” They answered, “Let the Ark of God be taken to Gath.” So they moved the Ark of the God of Israel.
9 But after they moved it, the hand of the Lord rose against that city, causing great confusion there. He struck the people of that city, both the young and the old, with tumors. 10 They, therefore, sent the Ark of God to Ekron. When the Ark of God was approaching Ekron, the people of Ekron cried out, “They are bringing the Ark of the God of Israel here to kill us, too!”
11 So they summoned all of the lords of the Philistines and told them, “Send the Ark of the God of Israel back to its home, lest it kill all of us. There is death and panic all throughout the city, and the hand of God is bearing down upon us heavily.” 12 The men who did not die were stricken with tumors, and a cry rose up from the city to the heavens.
Chapter 6
The Return of the Ark of God. 1 When the Ark of the Lord had been held in Philistine territory for seven months, 2 the Philistines summoned the priests and diviners and said, “What should we do with the Ark of the Lord? Tell us how to send it back home.”
3 They answered, “If you return the Ark of the God of Israel, do not send it away empty-handed. Rather, send a guilt offering to him. Then you will be healed, and you will understand why he continued to afflict you.”[j] 4 They then asked, “What sort of guilt offering should be made to him?” They answered, “Send five golden tumors and five golden mice, as many as the lords of the Philistines, for the plague was on you all, lords included. 5 You should make offerings in the likeness of tumors and in the likeness of the mice that have been ravaging the land, and give glory to the God of Israel. Perhaps he will ease up on you, your gods, and your land.
6 “Why would you harden your hearts, like the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When he dealt harshly with them, did they not let them go, and they went their way?
7 [k]“Prepare a cart drawn by two milk cows that have calves but have never been yoked. Hitch the cows to the cart, but take the calves away, leading them home. 8 Take the Ark of the Lord and place it upon the cart, and put the figures of gold that you are sending back as a guilt offering in a box at its side. Then send it off, and let it go its way. 9 Watch it, and if it goes up the road to its own land, to Beth-shemesh, then it is clear that he has brought this great woe upon us. But if it does not, then we shall know that it was not he who punished us, that it happened by chance.”
10 The Ark at Beth-shemesh. The men did this. They took two milk cows and tied them to a cart, shutting up their calves at home. 11 They then put the Ark of the Lord upon the cart along with the box containing the golden mice and the statues of the tumors. 12 The cows went straight up to Beth-shemesh, sticking to the road and lowing as they went along. They did not waver in their course to the right nor the left. The lords of the Philistines followed them as far as the border with Beth-shemesh.
13 Now the people of Beth-shemesh were harvesting their wheat in the valley when they looked up and saw the Ark. They rejoiced at what they saw. 14 The cart came into the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh, and it stopped there by a large rock. The people chopped up the wood from the cart and offered up the milk cows as a burnt offering to the Lord. 15 The Levites lowered the Ark down along with the box that contained the objects made of gold and placed them on the large rock. On that day the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and performed sacrifices to the Lord.
16 The five lords of the Philistines saw all of this and returned to Ekron that same day. 17 The golden tumors that the Philistines sent back as a guilt offering to the Lord were for Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron: one tumor for each city. 18 There were as many golden mice as there were cities under the rule of the five lords of the Philistines, both the fortified cities and the country villages. The large rock upon which they set the Ark of the Lord is in the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh to this day.
19 Punishment for Irreverence. He slew some of the men of Beth-shemesh because they had looked into the Ark of the Lord. He slew seventy of them.[l] The people raised up a lamentation because the Lord had struck the people with a great slaughter. 20 The men of Beth-shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God? To whom should we send it?” 21 They sent messengers to the people of Kiriath-jearim saying, “The Philistines have sent back the Ark of the Lord. Come down and fetch it for yourselves.”
Footnotes
- 1 Samuel 4:1 This story of the Ark, which is now part of the Book of Samuel, had in all probability existed as an independent narrative; it is one episode in the wars between the tribes and the Philistines.
- 1 Samuel 4:1 The Lord punishes the sin of the sons of Eli; the scales are weighed against them.
- 1 Samuel 4:4 Enthroned between the cherubim: in the Old Testament, cherubim, part human and part beast, are distinct from angels. The golden cherubim on the Ark cover the propitiation (Ex 25:10-22). The Israelites believed that God’s presence on the Ark would bring victory for Eli’s sons, Hophni and Phinehas, in battle.
- 1 Samuel 4:11 The battle was a total failure for Israel from the slaughter of men, the capture of the Ark of God, and the fulfillment of the prophecy that Eli’s sons would die on the same day (1 Sam 2:34).
- 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.
- 1 Samuel 5:2 Dagon: the chief god of the Philistines, who worshiped many gods and who thought that the Ark would bring blessings to them as it did to the Israelites. They discovered that the power of the Ark was beyond their control.
- 1 Samuel 5:6 Tumors: i.e., plague, spread by rats (see 6:4); see also Ps 78:66.
- 1 Samuel 5:7 The Philistine victory was short lived. Once they realized that the Ark was not helping them, they sought out ways to return it to the Israelites.
- 1 Samuel 6:3 The Philistine priests and diviners responded to the Ark as they traditionally would in appeasing an angry god. Their guilt offering, however, was not in line with Levitical requirements.
- 1 Samuel 6:7 This passage depicts another Philistine ploy to determine if the god of the Israelites was responsible for bringing them harm. God had his own reasons for showing them his power over the milk cows.
- 1 Samuel 6:19 He slew seventy of them: here is another instance of God meting out the punishment he had promised for disobedience. God tried over and over again to bring back his people to his ways to avoid further retribution.
