1 Samuel 4

Samuel's message came to all Israel. Now Israel went out to fight the Philistines. Israel set up camp beside Ebenezer, and the Philistines set up camp at Aphek.

1And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out against the Philistines to battle, and pitched beside Ebenezer: and the Philistines pitched in Aphek.

NoteThe Philistines were a people living in five fortified cities along the coastal plain southwest of Israel, Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron, and Gath. They were Israel's dominant military rival in this period, holding the lowlands while Israel held the hill country. Ebenezer and Aphek were about twenty miles west and northwest of Shiloh, near the edge of the hill country where the two territories met. The name Ebenezer means "stone of help"; the place is given that name later in the story (chapter 7), so the writer here is using a name his readers would already know.

2The Philistines lined up their troops facing Israel. When the fighting spread, Israel was beaten by the Philistines, who killed about four thousand men on the battlefield.

2And the Philistines put themselves in array against Israel: and when they joined battle, Israel was smitten before the Philistines: and they slew of the army in the field about four thousand men.

3When the soldiers came back to camp, the elders of Israel said, "Why has the LORD defeated us today in front of the Philistines? Let's bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD here from Shiloh. Then it will go with us and save us from our enemies."

3And when the people were come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, Wherefore hath the LORD smitten us to day before the Philistines? Let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of Shiloh unto us, that, when it cometh among us, it may save us out of the hand of our enemies.

Note"The elders" were the heads of families and clans, who governed local affairs and spoke for the people; they were not priests and held no religious office. The ark of the covenant was a gilded wooden chest, about four feet long, containing the stone tablets of the covenant, the agreement between the LORD and Israel made at Sinai. It was the most sacred object Israel possessed and normally stayed inside the sanctuary at Shiloh, a town in the hill country about twenty miles north of Jerusalem where Israel's central shrine stood. Carrying it into battle treated it as a war-palladium: the throne of the LORD brought onto the field so that he would fight with the army. "The LORD" in small capitals stands for the personal name of Israel's God, four Hebrew consonants usually written YHWH. Jewish readers avoided pronouncing it and said "the Lord" instead; English Bibles follow that practice.

4So the people sent men to Shiloh, and they brought back the ark of the covenant of the LORD of Hosts, who sits on his throne above the winged creatures called cherubim. Eli's two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, came there with the ark of the covenant of God.

4So the people sent to Shiloh, that they might bring from thence the ark of the covenant of the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth between the cherubims: and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.

Note"LORD of Hosts" means the LORD commanding armies (either heavenly ones or Israel's. The title is pointed here, since the ark is being fetched for a battle. Cherubim (the plural of cherub) were not infants with wings but powerful composite creatures) winged, part animal, part human, of the kind carved as guardians beside thrones and temple doors throughout the ancient Near East. Two of them, worked in gold, stood on the lid of the ark facing each other, and the empty space above their outstretched wings was pictured as the LORD's seat.

5When the ark of the covenant of the LORD came into the camp, all Israel gave a shout so loud that the ground shook.

5And when the ark of the covenant of the LORD came into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth rang again.

6The Philistines heard the noise of the shout and asked, "What is all this loud shouting in the camp of the Hebrews?" Then they learned that the ark of the LORD had come into the camp.

6And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shout, they said, What meaneth the noise of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews? And they understood that the ark of the LORD was come into the camp.

Note"Hebrews" is the name outsiders use for Israelites throughout these books; Israelites rarely apply it to themselves. In the mouth of the Philistines it carries a note of contempt.

7The Philistines were afraid. They said, "A god has come into their camp! We are in trouble, because nothing like this has ever happened before.

7And the Philistines were afraid, for they said, God is come into the camp. And they said, Woe unto us! for there hath not been such a thing heretofore.

8We are in trouble! Who will save us from these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with every kind of plague in the desert.

8Woe unto us! who shall deliver us out of the hand of these mighty Gods? these are the Gods that smote the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness.

NoteThe Hebrew word for God, *elohim*, is grammatically plural but is normally used of Israel's one God with singular verbs. Here the verb forms are plural, so the Philistines may be speaking as polytheists, "these gods", or the phrase may simply be the narrator reporting foreign speech in foreign terms. Translations differ, and the ambiguity is in the original. The Philistines also garble the story: the plagues struck Egypt, and the wilderness wandering came afterward. The mistake is theirs, not the writer's, this is what Israel's enemies had heard, secondhand.

9Be strong, Philistines! Act like men, or you will end up serving the Hebrews the way they have served you. Act like men and fight!"

9Be strong, and quit yourselves like men, O ye Philistines, that ye be not servants unto the Hebrews, as they have been to you: quit yourselves like men, and fight.

Note"Or you will end up serving the Hebrews the way they have served you" refers to forced labor and tribute imposed by a stronger people on a weaker one. The Philistines had been extracting both from Israelite territory; the fear is a straight reversal of that arrangement.

10So the Philistines fought, and Israel was beaten. Every man ran away to his own tent. The killing was terrible: thirty thousand Israelite foot soldiers died.

10And the Philistines fought, and Israel was smitten, and they fled every man into his tent: and there was a very great slaughter; for there fell of Israel thirty thousand footmen.

Note"Ran away to his own tent" is a set phrase meaning each man went home, whether or not he lived in a tent. It marks the army breaking up entirely. The Hebrew word translated "thousand" (*eleph*) can also mean a clan-based military unit of unspecified size, so the casualty figures here and in verse 2 may describe numbers of contingents rather than headcounts. The plain sense of a very large defeat is the same either way.

11The ark of God was captured, and Eli's two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were killed.

11And the ark of God was taken; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were slain.

12That same day a man from the tribe of Benjamin ran from the battle line to Shiloh. His clothes were torn and there was dirt on his head.

12And there ran a man of Benjamin out of the army, and came to Shiloh the same day with his clothes rent, and with earth upon his head.

NoteTearing one's clothes and putting dirt or ashes on the head were the standard public signs of grief and disaster. A man arriving in this state announced catastrophe before he said a word.

13When he got there, Eli was sitting on his seat beside the road, watching, because he was worried sick about the ark of God. When the man came into the town and told the news, the whole town cried out.

13And when he came, lo, Eli sat upon a seat by the wayside watching: for his heart trembled for the ark of God. And when the man came into the city, and told it, all the city cried out.

NoteEli is sitting at the town gate (verse 18 makes the location explicit). The gateway of a walled town was its public square, where news arrived, business was done, and cases were heard. As the presiding figure at Shiloh, Eli would sit there by right.

14Eli heard the noise of the crying and asked, "What is all this uproar?" So the man hurried over and told Eli.

14And when Eli heard the noise of the crying, he said, What meaneth the noise of this tumult? And the man came in hastily, and told Eli.

15Eli was ninety-eight years old, and his eyes were so weak that he could not see.

15Now Eli was ninety and eight years old; and his eyes were dim, that he could not see.

16The man said to Eli, "I am the one who came from the battle line. I ran from there today." Eli asked, "What happened, my son?"

16And the man said unto Eli, I am he that came out of the army, and I fled to day out of the army. And he said, What is there done, my son?

17The messenger answered, "Israel ran away from the Philistines. Many of our men were killed. Your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead too, and the ark of God has been captured."

17And the messenger answered and said, Israel is fled before the Philistines, and there hath been also a great slaughter among the people, and thy two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God is taken.

18When the man mentioned the ark of God, Eli fell backward off his seat beside the gate. He was old and heavy, so his neck broke and he died. He had judged Israel for forty years.

18And it came to pass, when he made mention of the ark of God, that he fell from off the seat backward by the side of the gate, and his neck brake, and he died: for he was an old man, and heavy. And he had judged Israel forty years.

NoteTo "judge" Israel in this period meant to lead and govern it (settling disputes and, at need, raising it for war), not merely to preside over trials. Eli is the last of these leaders before Samuel.

19His daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant and close to giving birth. 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 doubled over and gave birth, because her labor pains came on her.

19And his daughter in law, Phinehas’ wife, was with child, near to be delivered: and when she heard the tidings that the ark of God was taken, and that her father in law and her husband were dead, she bowed herself and travailed; for her pains came upon her.

20As she was dying, the women helping her said, "Don't be afraid. You have given birth to a son." But she did not answer or pay any attention.

20And about the time of her death the women that stood by her said unto her, Fear not; for thou hast born a son. But she answered not, neither did she regard it.

21She named the boy Ichabod, saying, "The glory has left Israel." She said this because the ark of God had been captured and because of her father-in-law and her husband.

21And she named the child Ichabod, saying, The glory is departed from Israel: because the ark of God was taken, and because of her father in law and her husband.

NoteIchabod means roughly "no glory" or "where is the glory?" Hebrew names were meaningful words, and naming a child after an event was a way of fixing the event in memory. The "glory" here translates *kavod*, a word whose root sense is weight or heaviness and which came to mean visible splendor and honor, in particular the manifest presence of the LORD associated with the ark. Her point is that the presence itself has gone, not merely that Israel's reputation has suffered.

22She said, "The glory has left Israel, because the ark of God has been captured."

22And she said, The glory is departed from Israel: for the ark of God is taken.