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From: 1 Samuel 4:1-11

The Ark is Captured by the Philistines. Death of Eli and His Sons

[1] And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out to battle
against the Philistines; they encamped at Ebenezer, and the Philistines en-
camped at Aphek. [2] The Philistines drew up in line against Israel, and when
the battle spread, Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who slew about four
thousand men on the field of battle. [3] And when the troops came to the camp,
the elders of Israel said, “Why has the LORD put us to rout today before the
Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD here from Shiloh,
that he may come among us and save us from the power of our enemies.” [4]
So the people sent to Shiloh, and brought from there the ark of the covenant of
the LORD of hosts, who is enthroned on the cherubim; and 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 Israel
gave a mighty shout, so that the earth resounded. [6] And when the Philistines
heard the noise of the shouting, they said, “What does this great shouting in the
camp of the Hebrews mean?” And when they learned that the ark of the LORD
had come to the camp, [7] the Philistines were afraid; for they said, “A god has
come into the camp.” And they said, “Woe to us! For nothing like this has hap-
pened before. [8] Woe to us! Who can deliver us from the power of these mighty
gods? These are the gods who smote the Egyptians with every sort of plague in
the wilderness. [9] Take courage, and acquit yourselves like men, O Philistines,
lest you become slaves to the Hebrews as they have been to you; acquit your-
selves like men and fight.”

[10] So the Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated, and they fled, every man
to his home; and there was a very great slaughter, for there fell of Israel thirty
thousand foot soldiers. [11] And the ark of God was captured; and the two sons
of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were slain.

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Commentary:

4:1-7:1. The vicissitudes of the ark will mark a change in the history of the people:
when the ark leaves its ancient home, Shiloh, the shrine of the era of the judges,
will disappear for ever and a new stage will begin, with a new shrine at the house
of Abinadab, and a new priesthood (7:1). These accounts contain important tea-
ching; God protects his peoples but the people are not identified with their God.
In ancient times in the East, the victory of one people over another proved the do-
mination of the god of the victor over the god of the defeated; this is not the case
in Israel: though the people may be overpowered by the Philistines, the Lord God
of Israel continues to be the one, supreme God; he can never be vanquished by
false gods. The accounts included in this section contain anecdotes full of irony
and pieces of popular folklore such as the golden tumors and the golden mice
(cf. the note on 6:1-7:1), but basically the message is that the Lord is ruling over
his people and he protects them even at times of great misfortune: even pagan
peoples, such as the Philistines acknowledge that this is the case.

4:1-22. The ark’s disappearance happens in the context of wars against the Phi-
listines. Here we see that the death of Eli and his sons, the capture of the ark,
and the defeat of the people — all this is due to the sins of the sons of Eli. God
just could not let their sin go unpunished, and he imposed a punishment so se-
vere that Phinehas’ wife had good reason to exclaim, “The glory has departed
from Israel” (v. 21). These misfortunes pile one on the other, to make it clear
that the worst punishment of all was the loss of the ark: its capture involved the
death of Hophni and Phinehas (v. 11); when Eli hears of his Sons’ death, he
falls down dead (v. 18); and Phinehas’ wife, when she is told of these three mis-
fortunes, gives birth prematurely and dies (v. 20). It would be a mistake to think
that the Philistines have gained the victory: it is rather, God who has defeated
the Israelites because they have ceased to trust in him and instead have put
their faith in institutions and objects which have no enduring value, such as the
shrine and its priests.

The Philistines (in Hebrew, “pelestim”) were one of the “sea peoples” (that is,
they were not Semites; cf. Gen 10:14), who had established themselves along
the southern coast of Canaan, Their five most important cities were: (Gaza, Ash-
kelon, Ashdod, Oath and Ekron. By extension, the Greek word “Palaistine (”land
of the ‘pelestim’”) came to describe the entire land of Canaan, giving rise to the
name of Palestine. However, the Israelites never managed to control the entire
Palestine zone, with the result that all along, from the accounts to do with the
patriarchs (Gen 21:32, 34) up to the books of the Kings, the Philistines are de-
picted as irreconcilable enemies of the Israelites.

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.