1 Samuel 4:1-11--The Philistines Capture the Ark

1 Samuel 4:1-11
English Standard Version

The Philistines Capture the Ark
4 And the word of Samuel came to all Israel.

Now Israel went out to battle against the Philistines. They encamped at Ebenezer, and the Philistines encamped at Aphek. 2 The Philistines drew up in line against Israel, and when the battle spread, Israel was defeated before the Philistines, who killed about four thousand men on the field of battle. 3 And when the people came to the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why has the LORD defeated us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD here from Shiloh, that it may come among us and save us from the power of our enemies.” 4 So the people sent to Shiloh and brought from there the ark of the covenant of the LORD of hosts, who is enthroned on the cherubim. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.

5 As soon as the ark of the covenant of the LORD came into the camp, all Israel gave a mighty shout, so that the earth resounded. 6 And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shouting, they said, “What does this great shouting in the camp of the Hebrews mean?” And when they learned that the ark of the LORD had come to the camp, 7 the Philistines were afraid, for they said, “A god has come into the camp.” And they said, “Woe to us! For nothing like this has happened before. 8 Woe to us! Who can deliver us from the power of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with every sort of plague in the wilderness. 9 Take courage, and be men, O Philistines, lest you become slaves to the Hebrews as they have been to you; be men and fight.”

​10 So the Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated, and they fled, every man to his home. And there was a very great slaughter, for thirty thousand foot soldiers of Israel fell. 11 And the ark of God was captured, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died.

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It is important to today's story to notice that nowhere did the Israelites consult the LORD before going to battle as they were supposed to, and they did not take the Ark of the Covenant with them to battle as they were supposed to.  Only after they started to lose did they think to go get it and bring it out to the battlefront as a talisman or good luck charm of some kind that might change the tides of the battle.  This is because the hearts of the people were far from the LORD and they did what was right in their own eyes as we saw in the book of Judges.

The Israelites camped at Ebenezer (meaning stone of help).  This will be a bit of foreshadowing because there will be a naming ceremony for this place after this battle in chapter 7, but all who read this history written by Samuel would know this place by this name.  The Philistines encamped at a place named Aphek.  To the surprise of all of Israel that day, the LORD allowed Israel to be defeated by the Philistines and 4,000 Israelites were killed that day.  As I mentioned earlier, it was only at this point that they even thought about the LORD and why He might allow this to happen to them, and they thought to bring the Ark of the Covenant to the battlefront (bad idea, since the people had not sought the LORD's instruction or blessing for this war).

When the Ark of the Covenant arrived, the Israelites gave a rallying cry that the Philistines understood to mean that a god had arrived in the camp of the Israelites, and they knew this must be the same god that was mighty enough to deliver them from the Egyptians and helped them survive forty years of wandering through the wilderness (and helped them defeat the Canaanites, though they don't mention that).  They know their options are to take the Ark of the Covenant away from the Israelites or to at best be enslaved to the Israelites forever (possibly to have their kingdom completely decimated and destroyed like what happened to Egypt).  So they commanded their men to take courage and the Philistines fought like their life, freedom and the existence of their entire nation depended on it, and they were again victorious killing another 30,000 Israelites, including Hophni and Phineas, the sons of Eli, and the LORD also allowed them to capture the Ark of the Covenant.

This was devastating to the Israelites and we'll see that when Eli hears these words, not only that his sons were killed in battle, but that the Ark of the Covenant was captured, it will kill him to complete the judgment that the LORD had prophesied that all these things would happen on a single day and it would get the attention of the entire nation.  They had presumed that the LORD must bless them in everything they do and protect them no matter what bad decision they made, but He has made it clear to them that they need to correct course and now the people will be ready to listen to the words of the LORD spoken through His prophet Samuel.