Skip to the text

1 Samuel · Literal Standard Version

1 Samuel 4 Literal Standard Version

Leer en español
About LSV
  • Protestant
  • OT: Masoretic Hebrew
  • NT: Majority (Byzantine) text
  • Protestant (66 books)
  • Very literal
  • 2020
  • CC BY-SA 4.0

Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings

1 And the word of Samuel is to all Israel, and Israel goes out to meet the Philistines for battle, and they encamp by Eben-Ezer, and the Philistines have encamped in Aphek, 2 and the Philistines set themselves in array to meet Israel, and the battle spreads itself, and Israel is struck before the Philistines, and they strike among the ranks in the field about four thousand men. 3 And the people come into the camp, and [the] elderly of Israel say, “Why has YHWH struck us today before the Philistines? We take the Ark of the Covenant of YHWH from Shiloh to ourselves, and it comes into our midst, and He saves us out of the hand of our enemies.” 4 And the people send to Shiloh, and they take from there the Ark of the Covenant of YHWH of Hosts, inhabiting the cherubim, and there [are] two sons of Eli with the Ark of the Covenant of God, Hophni and Phinehas. 5 And it comes to pass, at the coming in of the Ark of the Covenant of YHWH to the camp, that all Israel shouts [with] a great shout, and the earth is moved. 6 And the Philistines hear the noise of the shouting, and say, “What [is] the noise of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews?” And they perceive that the Ark of YHWH has come into the camp. 7 And the Philistines are afraid, for they said, “God has come into the camp”; and they say, “Woe to us, for there has been nothing like this before. 8 Woe to us, who delivers us out of the hand of these majestic gods? These [are] the gods who are striking the Egyptians with every plague in the wilderness. 9 Strengthen yourselves, and become men, O Philistines, lest you do service to Hebrews, as they have done to you—then you have become men, and have fought.” 10 And the Philistines fight, and Israel is struck, and they each flee to his tents, and the slaughter is very great, and thirty thousand footmen of Israel fall; 11 and the Ark of God has been taken, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, have died. 12 And a man of Benjamin runs out of the ranks, and comes into Shiloh, on that day, and his long robes [are] torn, and earth [is] on his head; 13 and he comes in, and behold, Eli is sitting on the throne by the side of the way, watching, for his heart has been trembling for the Ark of God, and the man has come into the city and declares [it], and all the city cries out. 14 And Eli hears the noise of the cry and says, “What [is] the noise of this tumult?” And the man hurried, and comes in, and tells Eli. 15 And Eli is a son of ninety-eight years, and his eyes have stood, and he has not been able to see. 16 And the man says to Eli, “I [am] he who has come out of the ranks, and I have fled out of the ranks today”; and he says, “What has been the matter, my son?” 17 And he who is bearing tidings answers and says, “Israel has fled before the Philistines, and also a great slaughter has been among the people, and also your two sons have died—Hophni and Phinehas—and the Ark of God has been captured.” 18 And it comes to pass, at his mentioning the Ark of God, that he falls backward from off the throne, by the side of the gate, and his neck is broken, and he dies, for the man [is] old and heavy, and he has judged Israel [for] forty years. 19 And his daughter-in-law, wife of Phinehas, [is] pregnant, about to bear, and she hears the report of the taking of the Ark of God, that her father-in-law and her husband have died, and she bows, and bears, for her pains have turned on her. 20 And at the time of her death, the women who are standing by her say, “Do not fear, for you have borne a son,” she has not answered, nor set her heart [to it]; 21 and she calls the youth Ichabod, saying, “Glory has removed from Israel,” because of the taking of the Ark of God, and because of her father-in-law and her husband. 22 And she says, “Glory has removed from Israel, for the Ark of God has been taken.”

People & places in this chapter

From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.

People

  • Hophni

    Wicked son of Eli

    A priest at Shiloh and son of Eli, who treated the LORD's offering with contempt and died the same day as his brother Phinehas when the ark of God was captured.

    Cited in the guide: 1 Samuel 1:3; 1 Samuel 2:34; 1 Samuel 4:4

  • Ichabod

    Grandson of Eli

    Born as his mother died after hearing the ark was captured, he was named Ichabod, meaning the glory has departed from Israel.

    Cited in the guide: 1 Samuel 4:21; 1 Samuel 14:3

  • Phinehas

    Wicked son of Eli

    A priest at Shiloh and son of Eli, who died on the day the ark of God was captured; his wife died in childbirth after naming their son Ichabod.

    Cited in the guide: 1 Samuel 1:3; 1 Samuel 2:34; 1 Samuel 4:4

Cross references (20)

Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.

  1. 1 1 Samuel 29:1; 1 Samuel 7:12; 1 Samuel 5:1; Joshua 12:18; 1 Kings 20:30
  2. 2 Lamentations 3:40; Psalm 44:9–10; Joshua 7:12; 1 Samuel 17:8; Joshua 7:5–8
  3. 3 2 Timothy 3:5; Numbers 10:35; Numbers 31:6; 1 Corinthians 10:1–5; 2 Samuel 15:25
  4. 4 2 Samuel 6:2; Psalm 80:1; Numbers 7:89; Psalm 99:1; 2 Kings 19:15
  5. 5 Joshua 6:5; Job 20:5; Jeremiah 7:4; Joshua 6:20; Judges 15:14
  6. 6 Exodus 32:17–18
  7. 7 Exodus 15:14–16; Exodus 14:25; Deuteronomy 32:30
  8. 8 Psalm 78:43–51; Exodus 7:5; Exodus 9:14
  9. 9 1 Corinthians 16:13; Judges 13:1; Ephesians 6:10–11; 2 Samuel 10:12; Isaiah 33:1
  10. 10 1 Samuel 4:2; 2 Kings 14:12; Deuteronomy 28:25; Leviticus 26:17; Psalm 78:60–64
  11. 11 1 Samuel 2:34; Psalm 78:64; Isaiah 3:11; 1 Samuel 2:32; Psalm 78:60–61
  12. 12 Joshua 7:6; 2 Samuel 15:32; 2 Samuel 1:2; Nehemiah 9:1; Job 2:12
  13. 13 1 Samuel 1:9; 1 Samuel 4:18; Psalm 79:1–8; Psalm 26:8; Nehemiah 1:3–4
  14. 15 1 Samuel 3:2; Psalm 90:10; Genesis 27:1; 1 Kings 14:4
  15. 16 2 Samuel 1:4; Joshua 7:19; 1 Samuel 3:6
  16. 17 1 Samuel 3:11; 1 Samuel 4:10–11
  17. 18 1 Samuel 4:21–22; 1 Peter 4:17–18; Psalm 69:9; 1 Samuel 4:13; Lamentations 2:15–19
  18. 20 Psalm 77:2; John 16:21; Genesis 35:17–18
  19. 21 Psalm 26:8; Psalm 78:61; Jeremiah 2:11; Psalm 78:64; Hosea 9:12
  20. 22 John 2:17; Psalm 137:5–6

Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences

What the Fathers said

Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).

How these were chosen

“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).

  1. Quotes verse 4:10 Augustine of Hippo, Expositions on the Psalms (Psalm LXXVIII)

    But doubtless he is commemorating the doing of that thing, when they were conquered by the Philistines in the time of Heli the priest, and the Ark of the Lord was taken, and with great slaughter they were laid low. This it is that he speaketh of.

    Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 8 (1888)