Samuel (2 of 2)

In context

After a defeat by the Philistines near Ebenezer and Aphek, Israel’s elders sent to Shiloh for the ark of the covenant, the gold-covered chest that held the stone tablets of the law (1 Samuel 4:1–4; Exodus 25:10–16; Deuteronomy 10:5). They lost again: thirty thousand died, Hophni and Phinehas among them, and the ark was taken (4:10–11). Eli, ninety-eight and blind, fell and died at the news, and Phinehas’ wife named her newborn son Ichabod, which the WEB notes means “no glory” (4:15–22). These chapters tell of many deaths, briefly. A psalm remembers that God “abandoned the tent of Shiloh” (Psalm 78:60).

In Ashdod the statue of the Philistine god Dagon fell on its face before the ark, and in Ashdod, Gath and Ekron tumors broke out. After seven months they sent it back on a cart pulled by two milk cows, which went straight to Beth Shemesh (5:1–6:12). The ark went to Kiriath Jearim, and from that day “the time was long—for it was twenty years; and all the house of Israel lamented after Yahweh” (7:1–2). Then Israel put away its foreign gods, Samuel gathered the people at Mizpah, and the Lord thundered against the Philistines. Samuel set up a stone and named it Ebenezer, “stone of help” (7:3–12).