Scriptures

New Living Translation (NLT)

1 Samuel 4
¹⁵ who was ninety-eight years old and blind.
¹⁶ He said to Eli, “I have just come from the battlefield—I was there this very day.” “What happened, my son?” Eli demanded.
¹⁷ “Israel has been defeated by the Philistines,” the messenger replied. “The people have been slaughtered, and your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were also killed. And the Ark of God has been captured.”
¹⁸ When the messenger mentioned what had happened to the Ark of God, Eli fell backward from his seat beside the gate. He broke his neck and died, for he was old and overweight. He had been Israel’s judge 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 father-in-law and husband were dead, she went into labor and gave birth.
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 pay attention to them.
²¹ She named the child Ichabod (which means “Where is the glory?”), for she said, “Israel’s glory is gone.” She named him this because the Ark of God had been captured and because her father-in-law and husband 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 town of Ashdod.
² They carried the Ark of God into the temple of Dagon and placed it beside an 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 took Dagon and put him in his place again.