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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"><title>1 Samuel 4 CEV</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /></head> <script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-LR4HSKRP2H"></script> <script> window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-LR4HSKRP2H'); </script><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/1_samuel/4.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="../topmenuchap/1_samuel/4-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="//biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">CEV</a> > 1 Samuel 4</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../1_samuel/3.htm" title="1 Samuel 3">◄</a> 1 Samuel 4 <a href="../1_samuel/5.htm" title="1 Samuel 5">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading">Contemporary English Version</div><div class="chap"><p class="nb"><span class="v9_4_1"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.4.1" class="v9_4_1">1</span>Then Samuel would speak to the whole nation of Israel.</span></p><h3 class="s1">The Philistines Capture the Sacred Chest</h3><p class="par"><span class="v9_4_1">One day the Israelites went out to fight the Philistines. They set up camp near Ebenezer, and the Philistines camped at Aphek. </span><span class="v9_4_2"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.4.2" class="v9_4_2">2</span>The Philistines made a fierce attack. They defeated the Israelites and killed about 4,000 of them.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v9_4_3"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.4.3" class="v9_4_3">3</span>The Israelite army returned to their camp, and the leaders said, “Why did the <span class="nd">Lord</span> let us lose to the Philistines today? Let's get the sacred chest where the <span class="nd">Lord</span>'s agreement with Israel is kept. Then the <span class="nd">Lord</span><a href="#fn" id="link_1Sam.4.3!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> will help us and rescue us from our enemies.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v9_4_4"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.4.4" class="v9_4_4">4</span><a href="#fn" id="link_1Sam.4.4!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> The army sent some soldiers to bring back the sacred chest from Shiloh, because the <span class="nd">Lord</span> All-Powerful has his throne on the winged creatures on top of the chest.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v9_4_4">As Eli's two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, </span><span class="v9_4_5"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.4.5" class="v9_4_5">5</span>brought the chest into camp, the army cheered so loudly that the ground shook. </span><span class="v9_4_6"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.4.6" class="v9_4_6">6</span>The Philistines heard the noise and said, “What are those Hebrews shouting about?”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v9_4_6">When the Philistines learned that the sacred chest had been brought into the camp, </span><span class="v9_4_7"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.4.7" class="v9_4_7">7</span>they were scared to death and said:</span></p><p class="pi"><span class="v9_4_7">The gods have come into their camp. Now we're in real trouble! Nothing like this has ever happened to us before. </span><span class="v9_4_8"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.4.8" class="v9_4_8">8</span>We're in big trouble! Who can save us from these powerful gods? They're the same gods who made all those horrible things happen to the Egyptians in the desert.</span></p><p class="pi"><span class="v9_4_9"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.4.9" class="v9_4_9">9</span>Philistines, be brave and fight hard! If you don't, those Hebrews will rule us, just as we've been ruling them. Fight and don't be afraid.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v9_4_10"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.4.10" class="v9_4_10">10</span>The Philistines did fight. They killed 30,000 Israelite soldiers, and all the rest ran off to their homes. </span><span class="v9_4_11"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.4.11" class="v9_4_11">11</span>Hophni and Phinehas were killed, and the sacred chest was captured.</span></p><h3 class="s1">Eli Dies</h3><p class="par"><span class="v9_4_12"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.4.12" class="v9_4_12">12</span>That same day a soldier from the tribe of Benjamin ran from the battlefront to Shiloh. He had torn his clothes and put dirt on his head to show his sorrow. </span><span class="v9_4_13"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.4.13" class="v9_4_13">13</span>He went into town and told the news about the battle, and everyone started crying.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v9_4_13">Eli was afraid that something might happen to the sacred chest. So he was sitting on his chair beside the road, just waiting. </span><span class="v9_4_14"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.4.14-1Sam.4.15" class="v9_4_14">14-15</span>He was 98 years old and blind, but he could hear everyone crying, and he asked, “What's all that noise?”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v9_4_14">The soldier hurried over and told Eli, </span><span class="v9_4_16"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.4.16" class="v9_4_16">16</span>“I escaped from the fighting today and ran here.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v9_4_16">“Young man, what happened?” Eli asked.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v9_4_17"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.4.17" class="v9_4_17">17</span>“Israel ran away from the Philistines,” the soldier answered. “Many of our people were killed, including your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas. But worst of all, the sacred chest was captured.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v9_4_18"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.4.18" class="v9_4_18">18</span>Eli was still sitting on a chair beside the wall of the town gate. And when the man said that the Philistines had taken the sacred chest, Eli fell backwards. He was a very heavy old man, and the fall broke his neck and killed him. He had been a leader<a href="#fn" id="link_1Sam.4.18!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> of Israel for 40 years.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v9_4_19"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.4.19" class="v9_4_19">19</span>The wife of Phinehas was about to give birth. And soon after she heard that the sacred chest had been captured and that her husband and his father had died, her baby came. The birth was very hard, </span><span class="v9_4_20"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.4.20" class="v9_4_20">20</span>and she was dying. But the women taking care of her said, “Don't be afraid—it's a boy!”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v9_4_20">She didn't pay any attention to them. </span><span class="v9_4_21"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.4.21-1Sam.4.22" class="v9_4_21">21-22</span>Instead she kept thinking about losing her husband and her father-in-law. So she said, “My son will be named Ichabod,<a href="#fn" id="link_1Sam.4.21-1Sam.4.22!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> because the glory of Israel left our country when the sacred chest was captured.”</span></p> <a name="fn"></a><br /><br /><br /><b>Footnotes:<br /><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">4.3 </char><char style="fq" closed="false"><char style="nd">Lord</char>: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">Or “chest.”</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">4.18 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">leader: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">The Hebrew word means that Eli may have been an army commander, a judge, and a priest.</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">4.21,22 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">Ichabod: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">Ichabod means “where is the glory?” or “there is no glory.”</char></note></div></div><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><div align="center"><p><span style="font-size:11pt;">Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt;">© 2006 American Bible Society. 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