Discovery Box1 Samuel 4:1--6:21 
Context4:1 Samuel revealed the word of the Lord 1 to all Israel.
Then the Israelites went out to fight the Philistines. 2 They camped at Ebenezer, 3 and the Philistines camped at Aphek. 4:2 The Philistines arranged their forces to fight 4 Israel. As the battle spread out, 5 Israel was defeated by 6 the Philistines, who 7 killed about four thousand men in the battle line in the field.
4:3 When the army 8 came back to the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why did the Lord let us be defeated today by 9 the Philistines? Let’s take with us the ark of the covenant of the Lord from Shiloh. When it is with us, it will save us 10 from the hand of our enemies.
4:4 So the army 11 sent to Shiloh, and they took from there the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts who sits between the cherubim. Now the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phineas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God. 4:5 When the ark of the covenant of the Lord arrived at the camp, all Israel shouted so loudly 12 that the ground shook.
4:6 When the Philistines heard the sound of the shout, they said, “What is this loud shout in the camp of the Hebrews?” Then they realized that the ark of the Lord had arrived at the camp. 4:7 The Philistines were scared because they thought that gods had come to the camp. 13 They said, “Too bad for 14 us! We’ve never seen anything like this! 4:8 Too bad for us! Who can deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all sorts of plagues in the desert! 4:9 Be strong and act like men, you Philistines, or else you will wind up serving the Hebrews the way they have served you! Act like men and fight!”
4:10 So the Philistines fought. Israel was defeated; they all ran home. 15 The slaughter was very great; thirty thousand foot soldiers fell in battle. 4:11 The ark of God was taken, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phineas, were killed.
4:12 On that day 16 a Benjaminite ran from the battle lines and came to Shiloh. His clothes were torn and dirt was on his head. 4:13 When he arrived in Shiloh, Eli was sitting in his chair watching by the side of 17 the road, for he was very worried 18 about the ark of God. As the man entered the city to give his report, 19 the whole city cried out.
4:14 When Eli heard the outcry, 20 he said, “What is this commotion?” 21 The man quickly came and told Eli. 4:15 Now Eli was ninety-eight years old and his eyes looked straight ahead; 22 he was unable to see.
4:16 The man said to Eli, “I am the one who came from the battle lines! Just today I fled from the battle lines!” Eli 23 asked, “How did things go, my son?” 4:17 The messenger replied, “Israel has fled from 24 the Philistines! The army has suffered a great defeat! Your two sons, Hophni and Phineas, are dead! The ark of God has been captured!”
4:18 When he mentioned the ark of God, Eli 25 fell backward from his chair beside the gate. He broke his neck and died, for he 26 was old and heavy. He had judged Israel for forty years.
4:19 His daughter-in-law, the wife of Phineas, was pregnant and close to giving birth. When she heard that the ark of God was captured and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she doubled over and gave birth. But her labor pains were too much for her. 4:20 As she was dying, the women who were there with her said, “Don’t be afraid! You have given birth to a son!” But she did not reply or pay any attention. 27
4:21 She named the boy Ichabod, 28 saying, “The glory has departed from Israel,” referring to the capture of the ark of God and the deaths of her father-in-law and her husband. 4:22 She said, “The glory has departed from Israel, because the ark of God has been captured.”
5:1 Now the Philistines had captured the ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. 5:2 The Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the temple of Dagon, where they positioned it beside Dagon. 5:3 When the residents of Ashdod got up early the next day, 29 Dagon was lying on the ground before the ark of the Lord. So they took Dagon and set him back in his place. 5:4 But when they got up early the following day, Dagon was again lying on the ground before the ark of the Lord. The head of Dagon and his two hands were sheared off and were lying at the threshold. Only Dagon’s body was left intact. 30 5:5 (For this reason, to this very day, neither Dagon’s priests nor anyone else who enters Dagon’s temple step on Dagon’s threshold in Ashdod.)
5:6 The Lord attacked 31 the residents of Ashdod severely, bringing devastation on them. He struck the people of 32 both Ashdod and the surrounding area with sores. 33 5:7 When the people 34 of Ashdod saw what was happening, they said, “The ark of the God of Israel should not remain with us, for he has attacked 35 both us and our god Dagon!”
5:8 So they assembled 36 all the leaders of the Philistines and asked, “What should we do with the ark of the God of Israel?” They replied, “The ark of the God of Israel should be moved to Gath.” So they moved the ark of the God of Israel.
5:9 But after it had been moved the Lord attacked 37 that city as well, causing a great deal of panic. He struck all the people of that city 38 with sores. 39 5:10 So they sent the ark of God to Ekron.
But when the ark of God arrived at Ekron, the residents of Ekron cried out saying, “They have brought the ark of the God of Israel here 40 to kill our 41 people!” 5:11 So they assembled 42 all the leaders of the Philistines and said, “Get the ark of the God of Israel out of here! Let it go back to its own place so that it won’t kill us 43 and our 44 people!” The terror 45 of death was throughout the entire city; God was attacking them very severely there. 46 5:12 The people 47 who did not die were struck with sores; the city’s cry for help went all the way up to heaven.
6:1 When the ark of the Lord had been in the land 48 of the Philistines for seven months, 49 6:2 the Philistines called the priests and the omen readers, saying, “What should we do with the ark of the Lord? Advise us as to how we should send it back to its place.”
6:3 They replied, “If you are going to send the ark of 50 the God of Israel back, don’t send it away empty. Be sure to return it with a guilt offering. Then you will be healed, and you will understand why his hand is not removed from you.” 6:4 They inquired, “What is the guilt offering that we should send to him?”
They replied, “The Philistine leaders number five. So send five gold sores and five gold mice, for it is the same plague that has afflicted both you and your leaders. 6:5 You should make images of the sores and images of the mice 51 that are destroying the land. You should honor the God of Israel. Perhaps he will release his grip on you, your gods, and your land. 52 6:6 Why harden your hearts like the Egyptians and Pharaoh did? 53 When God 54 treated them harshly, didn’t the Egyptians send the Israelites on their way? 55 6:7 So now go and make a new cart. Get two cows that have calves and that have never had a yoke placed on them. Harness the cows to the cart and take their calves from them back to their stalls. 6:8 Then take the ark of the Lord and place it on the cart, and put in a chest beside it the gold objects you are sending to him as a guilt offering. You should then send it on its way. 6:9 But keep an eye on it. If it should go up by the way of its own border to Beth Shemesh, then he has brought this great calamity on us. But if that is not the case, then we will know that it was not his hand that struck us; rather, it just happened to us by accident.”
6:10 So the men did as instructed. 56 They took two cows that had calves and harnessed them to a cart; they also removed their calves to their stalls. 6:11 They put the ark of the Lord on the cart, along with the chest, the gold mice, and the images of the sores. 6:12 Then the cows went directly on the road to Beth Shemesh. They went along, mooing as they went; they turned neither to the right nor to the left. The leaders of the Philistines were walking along behind them all the way to the border of Beth Shemesh.
6:13 Now the residents of Beth Shemesh were harvesting wheat in the valley. When they looked up and saw the ark, they were pleased at the sight. 6:14 The cart was coming to the field of Joshua, who was from Beth Shemesh. It paused there near a big stone. Then they cut up the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord. 6:15 The Levites took down the ark of the Lord and the chest that was with it, which contained the gold objects. They placed them near the big stone. At that time the people of Beth Shemesh offered burnt offerings and made sacrifices to the Lord. 6:16 The five leaders of the Philistines watched what was happening and then returned to Ekron on the same day.
6:17 These are the gold sores that the Philistines brought as a guilt offering to the Lord – one for each of the following cities: Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron. 6:18 The gold mice corresponded in number to all the Philistine cities of the five leaders, from the fortified cities to hamlet villages, to greater Abel, 57 where they positioned the ark of the Lord until this very day in the field of Joshua who was from Beth Shemesh.
6:19 But the Lord 58 struck down some of the people of Beth Shemesh because they had looked into the ark of the Lord; he struck down 50,070 59 of the men. The people grieved because the Lord had struck the people with a hard blow. 6:20 The residents of Beth Shemesh asked, “Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God? To whom will the ark 60 go up from here?”
6:21 So they sent messengers to the residents of Kiriath Jearim, saying, “The Philistines have returned the ark of the Lord. Come down here and take it back home with you.”
1 tn Heb “and the word of Samuel was.” The present translation understands Samuel to be the speaker of the divine word (“Samuel” is a subjective genitive in this case), although the statement could mean that he was the recipient of the divine word (“Samuel” is an objective genitive in this case) who in turn reported it to Israel.
2 tn Heb “and Israel went out to meet the Philistines for battle.”
3 tn Heb “the stone, the help.” The second noun is in apposition to the first one and apparently is the name by which the stone was known. Contrast the expression used in 5:1 and 7:12, where the first word lacks the definite article, unlike 4:1.
4 tn Heb “to meet.”
5 tn The MT has וַתִּטֹּשׁ (vattittosh), from the root נטשׁ (ntsh). This verb normally means “to leave,” “to forsake,” or “to permit,” but such an idea does not fit this context very well. Many scholars have suspected that the text originally read either וַתֵּט (vattet, “and it spread out”), from the root נטה (nth), or וַתִּקֶשׁ (vattiqesh, “and it grew fierce”), from the root קשׂה (qsh). The former suggestion is apparently supported by the LXX ἔκλινεν (eklinen, “it inclined”) and is adopted in the translation.
6 tn Heb “before.”
7 tn Heb “the Philistines, and they killed.” The pronoun “they” has been translated as a relative pronoun (“who”) to make it clear to the English reader that the Philistines were the ones who did the killing.
8 tn Or “people.”
9 tn Heb “before.”
10 tn Heb “and it will come in our midst and it will save.” After the cohortative (see “let’s take”), the prefixed verbal forms with the prefixed conjunction indicate purpose or result. The translation understands the ark to be the subject of the third masculine singular verbs, although it is possible to understand the Lord as the subject. In the latter case, one should translate, “when he is with us, he will save us.”
11 tn Or “people.”
12 tn Heb “shouted [with] a great shout.”
13 tn The Hebrew text has a direct quote, “because they said, ‘Gods have come to the camp.’” Even though the verb translated “have come” is singular, the following subject should be taken as plural (“gods”), as v. 8 indicates. Some emend the verb to a plural form.
14 tn Traditionally “woe to.” They thought disaster was imminent.
15 tn Heb “and they fled, each to his tents.”
16 tn Or perhaps, “the same day.” On this use of the demonstrative pronoun see Joüon 2:532 §143.f.
17 tc Read with many medieval Hebrew
18 tn Heb “his heart was trembling.”
19 tn Heb “and the man came to report in the city.”
20 tn Heb “the sound of the cry.”
21 tn Heb “the sound of this commotion.”
22 tn Heb “were set” or “were fixed,” i.e., without vision.
23 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Eli) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
24 tn Heb “before.”
25 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Eli) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
26 tn Heb “the man.”
27 tn Heb “and she did not set her heart.”
28 sn The name Ichabod (אִי־כָבוֹד) may mean, “Where is the glory?”
29 tc The LXX adds “they entered the temple of Dagon and saw.”
30 tc Heb “only Dagon was left.” We should probably read the word גֵּו (gev, “back”) before Dagon, understanding it to have the sense of the similar word גְּוִיָּה (gÿviyyah, “body”). This variant is supported by the following evidence: The LXX has ἡ ῥάχις (Jh rJacis, “the back” or “trunk”); the Syriac Peshitta has wegusmeh (“and the body of”); the Targum has gupyeh (“the body of”); the Vulgate has truncus (“the trunk of,” cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV, NLT). On the strength of this evidence the present translation employs the phrase “Dagon’s body.”
31 tn Heb “the hand of the
32 tn The words “the people of” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
33 tc The LXX and Vulgate add the following: “And mice multiplied in their land, and the terror of death was throughout the entire city.”
tn Or “tumors” (so ASV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NCV “growths on their skin”; KJV “emerods”; NAB “hemorrhoids.”
34 tn Heb “men.”
35 tn Heb “for his hand is severe upon.”
36 tn Heb “and they sent and gathered.”
37 tn Heb “the hand of the
38 tn Heb “and he struck the men of the city from small and to great.”
39 tn See the note on this term in v. 6. Cf. KJV “and they had emerods in their secret parts.”
40 tn Heb “to me.”
41 tn Heb “my.”
42 tn Heb “and they sent and gathered.”
43 tn Heb “me.”
44 tn Heb “my.”
45 tn Or “panic.”
46 tn Heb “the hand of God was very heavy there.”
47 tn Heb “men.”
48 tn Heb “field.”
49 tc The LXX adds “and their land swarmed with mice.”
50 tc The LXX and a Qumran
51 tn Heb “your mice.” A Qumran
52 tn Heb “Perhaps he will lighten his hand from upon you and from upon your gods and from upon your land.”
53 tn Heb “like Egypt and Pharaoh hardened their heart.”
54 tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
55 tn Heb “and they sent them away and they went.”
56 tn Heb “and the men did so.”
57 tc A few Hebrew
58 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the
59 tc The number 50,070 is surprisingly large, although it finds almost unanimous textual support in the MT and in the ancient versions. Only a few medieval Hebrew
60 tn Heb “he” or “it”; the referent here (the ark) has been specified in the translation for clarity (cf. also NIV, CEV, NLT). Others, however, take the referent to be the
