The Ark Taken and Eli’s Death

About this time the Philistines made war on the Israelites and pitched their camp at the city of Aphek. The Israelites waited for them only a short while; the very next day the two sides joined battle. The Philistines won, killed about four thousand of the Hebrews, and chased the rest of their army back to its camp. [a]

The Hebrews, fearing the worst, sent to the council of elders and to the high priest and asked them to bring the ark of God. They thought that if they drew up for battle with the ark among them, they would be too strong for their enemies. They did not stop to think that the One who had condemned them to these disasters was greater than the ark, and that it was because of him the ark existed at all. So the ark came, and the high priest’s sons with it. Their father had charged them that if they let themselves survive the capture of the ark, they were never to come into his presence again. Phinehas was already serving as high priest, because his father had handed the office over to him on account of his great age. The Hebrews were full of courage, supposing that the coming of the ark would make them too strong for their enemies; and their enemies, for their part, were deeply alarmed and afraid that the ark had come to the Israelites. But the outcome matched the expectations of neither side. When the battle was joined, the victory the Hebrews expected went to the Philistines, and the defeat the Philistines feared fell to the Israelites. So they learned that they had trusted in the ark for nothing. They were beaten as soon as they came to close quarters with the enemy, and they lost about thirty thousand men, among them the high priest’s sons; and the enemy carried the ark away. [b]

When the news of this defeat and of the ark’s capture reached Shiloh (a young man of the tribe of Benjamin who had been in the battle brought it there), the whole city was filled with wailing. Eli the high priest, who was sitting on a high seat at one of the gates, heard their cries of mourning and supposed that something terrible had happened to his family. So he sent for the young man. When he learned what had happened in the battle, he was not greatly disturbed about his sons, or about what he was told of the army, because he had known beforehand, by revelation from God, that these things would happen, and had himself announced them in advance; it is the sad things that come unexpectedly that distress people most. But as soon as he heard that the enemy had carried the ark off captive, he was overcome with grief, because this turned out quite differently from what he had expected. He fell from his seat and died, having lived ninety-eight years in all and held the government for forty of them. [d] That same day the wife of his son Phinehas also died, unable to survive her husband’s misfortune, for they told her of his death while she was in labor. She gave birth, though, to a son at seven months, and he lived. They named him Ichabod, which means “disgrace,” because the army had suffered disgrace at that time. [e]

Eli was the first of the family of Ithamar, Aaron’s other son, to hold the government. At first the family of Eleazar served as high priest, each son receiving the honor from his father. Eleazar left it to his son Phinehas; after him his son Abiezer took the honor and handed it on to his son, whose name was Bukki; from Bukki his son Uzzi received it; and after him Eli, of whom we have been speaking, held the priesthood. He and his descendants kept it until the time of Solomon’s reign, but then the descendants of Eleazar took it back. [f]