³ Elkanah used to go up every year from his city to worship and offer sacrifices at the altar of the Eternal One, Commander of heavenly armies, at Shiloh, where the priests of the Eternal were Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas.

⁴ So the people sent messengers to Shiloh and brought back the covenant chest of the Eternal One, Commander of heavenly armies, who is enthroned between the winged guardians.

The two sons of Eli—Hophni and Phinehas—accompanied the covenant chest of the True God on its journey to the battlefront. ⁵ When it entered the camp, the Israelites raised a shout so loud it seemed to shake the earth. ⁶ When the Philistines heard the noise, they wondered what the great shout from the Hebrews’ camp might mean; and when they heard that it was in response to the arrival of the covenant chest of the Eternal, ⁷ they shook with fear.

¹⁰ So the Philistines stood their ground and fought and won a great victory. The people of Israel were crushed, and the soldiers fled from the field of battle back to their homes. It was a horrible slaughter, with the Israelites losing 30,000 foot soldiers.

¹¹ But more importantly, they lost the covenant chest of the True God. The Philistines captured the chest, and Eli’s sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were killed.

¹² A Benjaminite ran from the battlefield and arrived in Shiloh that same day. He was in mourning—his clothes torn and dust heaped on his head. ¹³ When he arrived, Eli was sitting in his place of honor next to the city gate waiting anxiously for the covenant chest of God. When the man came into the city and told his news, the entire city cried out in grief. ¹⁴ But Eli, who could not see the messenger’s clothing, wondered at the meaning of the cries.

The man hurried to Eli and told him what had happened. ¹⁵ Eli was by this time 98 years old and blind.

¹⁸ When he heard this news about the covenant chest of the True God, Eli fell backward from his seat beside the gate, broke his neck, and died, for he was very old and heavyset.

He was a leader over Israel for 40 years.

¹⁹ His daughter-in-law, Phinehas’s wife, was pregnant and close to the end of her term. When she heard the news—that the covenant chest of the True God had been captured by the Philistines and that her husband and father-in-law were both dead—she was bowed over by her labor pains. She gave birth,

³ Ahijah, the son of Ahitub and nephew of Ichabod (who was a son of Phinehas, who was born to Eli, who had been the priest of the Eternal One in Shiloh), was also there with Saul, bearing the priestly vest. None of the people knew that Jonathan had gone.