ARKCODEX
1 Samuel
Ch. 3–5
The Lord Appears to Samuel
1In those days, when the boy Samuel was serving the Lord under the direction of Eli, there were very few messages from the Lord, and visions from him were quite rare.
2One night Eli, who was now almost blind, was sleeping in his own room;
3Samuel was sleeping in the sanctuary, where the sacred Covenant Box was. Before dawn, while the lamp was still burning,
4the Lord called Samuel. He answered, “Yes, sir!”
5and ran to Eli and said, “You called me, and here I am.” But Eli answered, “I didn't call you; go back to bed.” So Samuel went back to bed.
6-7The Lord called Samuel again. The boy did not know that it was the Lord, because the Lord had never spoken to him before. So he got up, went to Eli, and said, “You called me, and here I am.” But Eli answered, “My son, I didn't call you; go back to bed.”
8The Lord called Samuel a third time; he got up, went to Eli, and said, “You called me, and here I am.” Then Eli realized that it was the Lord who was calling the boy,
9so he said to him, “Go back to bed; and if he calls you again, say, ‘Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went back to bed.
10The Lord came and stood there, and called as he had before, “Samuel! Samuel!” Samuel answered, “Speak; your servant is listening.”
11The Lord said to him, “Some day I am going to do something to the people of Israel that is so terrible that everyone who hears about it will be stunned.
12On that day I will carry out all my threats against Eli's family, from beginning to end.
13I have already told him that I am going to punish his family forever because his sons have spoken evil things against me. Eli knew they were doing this, but he did not stop them.
14So I solemnly declare to the family of Eli that no sacrifice or offering will ever be able to remove the consequences of this terrible sin.”
15Samuel stayed in bed until morning; then he got up and opened the doors of the house of the Lord. He was afraid to tell Eli about the vision.
16Eli called him, “Samuel, my boy!” “Yes, sir,” answered Samuel.
17“What did the Lord tell you?” Eli asked. “Don't keep anything from me. God will punish you severely if you don't tell me everything he said.”
18So Samuel told him everything; he did not keep anything back. Eli said, “He is the Lord; he will do whatever seems best to him.”
19As Samuel grew up, the Lord was with him and made come true everything that Samuel said.
20So all the people of Israel, from one end of the country to the other, knew that Samuel was indeed a prophet of the Lord.
21The Lord continued to reveal himself at Shiloh, where he had appeared to Samuel and had spoken to him. And when Samuel spoke, all Israel listened.
1 Samuel 4
The Capture of the Covenant Box
1At that time the Philistines gathered to go to war against Israel, so the Israelites set out to fight them. The Israelites set up their camp at Ebenezer and the Philistines at Aphek.
2The Philistines attacked, and after fierce fighting they defeated the Israelites and killed about four thousand men on the battlefield.
3When the survivors came back to camp, the leaders of Israel said, “Why did the Lord let the Philistines defeat us today? Let's go and bring the Lord's Covenant Box from Shiloh, so that he will go with us and save us from our enemies.”
4So they sent messengers to Shiloh and got the Covenant Box of the Lord Almighty, who is enthroned above the winged creatures. And Eli's two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, came along with the Covenant Box.
5When the Covenant Box arrived, the Israelites gave such a loud shout of joy that the earth shook.
6The Philistines heard the shouting and said, “Listen to all that shouting in the Hebrew camp! What does it mean?” When they found out that the Lord's Covenant Box had arrived in the Hebrew camp,
7they were afraid, and said, “A god has come into their camp! We're lost! Nothing like this has ever happened to us before!
8Who can save us from those powerful gods? They are the gods who slaughtered the Egyptians in the desert!
9Be brave, Philistines! Fight like men, or we will become slaves to the Hebrews, just as they were our slaves. So fight like men!”
10The Philistines fought hard and defeated the Israelites, who went running to their homes. There was a great slaughter: thirty thousand Israelite soldiers were killed.
11God's Covenant Box was captured, and Eli's sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were both killed.
The Death of Eli
12A man from the tribe of Benjamin ran all the way from the battlefield to Shiloh and arrived there the same day. To show his grief, he had torn his clothes and put dirt on his head.
13Eli, who was very worried about the Covenant Box, was sitting in his seat beside the road, staring. The man spread the news throughout the town, and everyone cried out in fear.
14Eli heard the noise and asked, “What is all this noise about?” The man hurried to Eli to tell him the news.
15(Eli was now ninety-eight years old and almost completely blind.)
16The man said, “I have escaped from the battle and have run all the way here today.” Eli asked him, “What happened, my son?”
17The messenger answered, “Israel ran away from the Philistines; it was a terrible defeat for us! Besides that, your sons Hophni and Phinehas were killed, and God's Covenant Box was captured!”
18When the man mentioned the Covenant Box, Eli fell backward from his seat beside the gate. He was so old and fat that the fall broke his neck, and he died. He had been a leader in Israel for forty years.
The Death of the Widow of Phinehas
19Eli's daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant, and it was almost time for her baby to be born. When she heard that God's Covenant Box had been captured and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she suddenly went into labor and gave birth.
20As she was dying, the women helping her said to her, “Be brave! You have a son!” But she paid no attention and did not answer.
21She named the boy Ichabod, explaining, “God's glory has left Israel”—referring to the capture of the Covenant Box and the death of her father-in-law and her husband.
22“God's glory has left Israel,” she said, “because God's Covenant Box has been captured.”
1 Samuel 5
The Covenant Box among the Philistines
1After the Philistines captured the Covenant Box, they carried it from Ebenezer to their city of Ashdod,
2took it into the temple of their god Dagon, and set it up beside his statue.
3Early the next morning the people of Ashdod saw that the statue of Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground in front of the Lord's Covenant Box. So they lifted it up and put it back in its place.
4Early the following morning they saw that the statue had again fallen down in front of the Covenant Box. This time its head and both its arms were broken off and were lying in the doorway; only the body was left.
5(That is why even today the priests of Dagon and all his worshipers in Ashdod step over that place and do not walk on it.)
6The Lord punished the people of Ashdod severely and terrified them. He punished them and the people in the surrounding territory by causing them to have tumors.
7When they saw what was happening, they said, “The God of Israel is punishing us and our god Dagon. We can't let the Covenant Box stay here any longer.”
8So they sent messengers and called together all five of the Philistine kings and asked them, “What shall we do with the Covenant Box of the God of Israel?” “Take it over to Gath,” they answered; so they took it to Gath, another Philistine city.
9But after it arrived there, the Lord punished that city too and caused a great panic. He punished them with tumors which developed in all the people of the city, young and old alike.
10So they sent the Covenant Box to Ekron, another Philistine city; but when it arrived there, the people cried out, “They have brought the Covenant Box of the God of Israel here, in order to kill us all!”
11So again they sent for all the Philistine kings and said, “Send the Covenant Box of Israel back to its own place, so that it won't kill us and our families.” There was panic throughout the city because God was punishing them so severely.
12Even those who did not die developed tumors and the people cried out to their gods for help.
Psalms
Ch. 150
Praise the Lord!
1Praise the Lord! Praise God in his Temple! Praise his strength in heaven!
2Praise him for the mighty things he has done. Praise his supreme greatness.
3Praise him with trumpets. Praise him with harps and lyres.
4Praise him with drums and dancing. Praise him with harps and flutes.
5Praise him with cymbals. Praise him with loud cymbals.
6Praise the Lord, all living creatures! Praise the Lord!