1 Samuel 4

• 1. At that time Israel was at war with the Philistines. The Israelite army was camped near Ebenezer, and the Philistines were at Aphek.
• 2. The Philistines attacked and defeated the army of Israel, killing four thousand men.
• 3. After the battle was over, the army of Israel retreated to their camp, and their leaders asked, "Why did the LORD allow us to be defeated by the Philistines?" Then they said, "Let's bring the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD from Shiloh. If we carry it into battle with us, it will save us from our enemies."
• 4. So they sent men to Shiloh to bring back the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim. Hophni and Phinehas, the sons of Eli, helped carry the Ark of God to where the battle was being fought.
• 5. When the Israelites saw the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD coming into the camp, their shout of joy was so loud that it made the ground shake!
• 6. "What's going on?" the Philistines asked. "What's all the shouting about in the Hebrew camp?" When they were told it was because the Ark of the LORD had arrived,
• 7. they panicked. "The gods have come into their camp!" they cried. "This is a disaster! We have never had to face anything like this before!
• 8. Who can save us from these mighty gods of Israel? They are the same gods who destroyed the Egyptians with plagues when Israel was in the wilderness.
• 9. Fight as you never have before, Philistines! If you don't, we will become the Hebrews' slaves just as they have been ours!"
• 10. So the Philistines fought desperately, and Israel was defeated again. The slaughter was great; thirty thousand Israelite men died that day. The survivors turned and fled to their tents.
• 11. The Ark of God was captured, and Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, were killed.
• 12. A man from the tribe of Benjamin ran from the battlefront and arrived at Shiloh later that same day. He had torn his clothes and put dust on his head to show his grief.
• 13. Eli was waiting beside the road to hear the news of the battle, for his heart trembled for the safety of the Ark of God. When the messenger arrived and told what had happened, an outcry resounded throughout the town.
• 14. "What is all the noise about?" Eli asked. The messenger rushed over to Eli,
• 15. who was ninety-eight years old and blind.
• 16. He said to Eli, "I have just come from the battlefront--I was there this very day.What happened?" Eli demanded.
• 17. "Israel has been defeated," the messenger replied. "Thousands of Israelite troops are dead on the battlefield. Your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were killed, too. And the Ark of God has been captured."
• 18. When the messenger mentioned what had happened to the Ark, Eli fell backward from his seat beside the gate. He broke his neck and died, for he was old and very fat. He had led Israel for forty years.
• 19. Eli's daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant and near her time of delivery. When she heard that the Ark of God had been captured and that her husband and father-in-law were dead, her labor pains suddenly began.
• 20. She died in childbirth, but before she passed away the midwives tried to encourage her. "Don't be afraid," they said. "You have a baby boy!" But she did not answer or respond in any way.
• 21. She named the child Ichabod--"Where is the glory?"--murmuring, "Israel's glory is gone." She named him this because the Ark of God had been captured and because her husband and her father-in-law were dead.
• 22. Then she said, "The glory has departed from Israel, for the Ark of God has been captured."

1 Samuel 5

• 1. After the Philistines captured the Ark of God, they took it from the battleground at Ebenezer to the city of Ashdod.
• 2. They carried the Ark of God into the temple of Dagon and placed it beside the idol of Dagon.
• 3. But when the citizens of Ashdod went to see it the next morning, Dagon had fallen with his face to the ground in front of the Ark of the LORD! So they set the idol up again.
• 4. But the next morning the same thing happened--the idol had fallen face down before the Ark of the LORD again. This time his head and hands had broken off and were lying in the doorway. Only the trunk of his body was left intact.
• 5. That is why to this day neither the priests of Dagon nor anyone who enters the temple of Dagon will step on its threshold.
• 6. Then the LORD began to afflict the people of Ashdod and the nearby villages with a plague of tumors.
• 7. When the people realized what was happening, they cried out, "We can't keep the Ark of the God of Israel here any longer! He is against us! We will all be destroyed along with our god Dagon."
• 8. So they called together the rulers of the five Philistine cities and asked, "What should we do with the Ark of the God of Israel?" The rulers discussed it and replied, "Move it to the city of Gath." So they moved the Ark of the God of Israel to Gath.
• 9. But when the Ark arrived at Gath, the LORD began afflicting its people, young and old, with a plague of tumors, and there was a great panic.
• 10. So they sent the Ark of God to the city of Ekron, but when the people of Ekron saw it coming they cried out, "They are bringing the Ark of the God of Israel here to kill us, too!"
• 11. So the people summoned the rulers again and begged them, "Please send the Ark of the God of Israel back to its own country, or it will kill us all." For the plague from God had already begun, and great fear was sweeping across the city.
• 12. Those who didn't die were afflicted with tumors; and there was weeping everywhere.

1 Samuel 6

• 1. The Ark of the LORD remained in Philistine territory seven months in all.
• 2. Then the Philistines called in their priests and diviners and asked them, "What should we do about the Ark of the LORD? Tell us how to return it to its own land."
• 3. "Send the Ark of the God of Israel back, along with a gift," they were told. "Send a guilt offering so the plague will stop. Then, if the plague doesn't stop, you will know that God didn't send the plague after all."
• 4. "What sort of guilt offering should we send?" they asked. And they were told, "Since the plague has struck both you and your five rulers, make five gold tumors and five gold rats, just like those that have ravaged your land.
• 5. Make these things to show honor to the God of Israel. Perhaps then he will stop afflicting you, your gods, and your land.
• 6. Don't be stubborn and rebellious as Pharaoh and the Egyptians were. They wouldn't let Israel go until God had ravaged them with dreadful plagues.
• 7. Now build a new cart, and find two cows that have just had calves. Make sure the cows have never been yoked to a cart. Hitch the cows to the cart, but shut their calves away from them in a pen.
• 8. Put the Ark of the LORD on the cart, and beside it place a chest containing the gold rats and gold tumors. Then let the cows go wherever they want.
• 9. If they cross the border of our land and go to Beth-shemesh, we will know it was the LORD who brought this great disaster upon us. If they don't, we will know that the plague was simply a coincidence and was not sent by the LORD at all."
• 10. So these instructions were carried out. Two cows with newborn calves were hitched to the cart, and their calves were shut up in a pen.
• 11. Then the Ark of the LORD and the chest containing the gold rats and gold tumors were placed on the cart.
• 12. And sure enough, the cows went straight along the road toward Beth-shemesh, lowing as they went. The Philistine rulers followed them as far as the border of Beth-shemesh.
• 13. The people of Beth-shemesh were harvesting wheat in the valley, and when they saw the Ark, they were overjoyed!
• 14. The cart came into the field of a man named Joshua and stopped beside a large rock. So the people broke up the wood of the cart for a fire and killed the cows and sacrificed them to the LORD as a burnt offering.
• 15. Several men of the tribe of Levi lifted the Ark of the LORD and the chest containing the gold rats and gold tumors from the cart and placed them on the large rock. Many burnt offerings and sacrifices were offered to the LORD that day by the people of Beth-shemesh.
• 16. The five Philistine rulers watched all this and then returned to Ekron that same day.
• 17. The five gold tumors that were sent by the Philistines as a guilt offering to the LORD were gifts from the rulers of Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron.
• 18. The five gold rats represented the five Philistine cities and their surrounding villages, which were controlled by the five rulers. The large rock at Beth-shemesh, where they set the Ark of the LORD, still stands in the field of Joshua as a reminder of what happened there.
• 19. But the LORD killed seventy men from Beth-shemesh because they looked into the Ark of the LORD. And the people mourned greatly because of what the LORD had done.
• 20. "Who is able to stand in the presence of the LORD, this holy God?" they cried out. "Where can we send the Ark from here?"
• 21. So they sent messengers to the people at Kiriath-jearim and told them, "The Philistines have returned the Ark of the LORD. Please come here and get it!"

New Living Translation: 83 of 324 days.