Scriptures

New Living Translation (NLT)

1 Samuel 4
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.
⁴ But the next morning the same thing happened—Dagon had fallen face down before the Ark of the LORD again. This time his head and hands had broken off and were lying in the doorway. Only the trunk of his body was left intact.
⁵ That is why to this day neither the priests of Dagon nor anyone who enters the temple of Dagon in Ashdod will step on its threshold.
⁶ Then the LORD’s heavy hand struck the people of Ashdod and the nearby villages with a plague of tumors.
⁷ When the people realized what was happening, they cried out, “We can’t keep the Ark of the God of Israel here any longer! He is against us! We will all be destroyed along with Dagon, our god.”