8. Who can save us from those powerful gods? They are the gods who slaughtered the Egyptians in the desert!
9. Be brave, Philistines! Fight like men, or we will become slaves to the Hebrews, just as they were our slaves. So fight like men!”
10. The Philistines fought hard and defeated the Israelites, who went running to their homes. There was a great slaughter: 30,000 Israelite soldiers were killed.
11. God's Covenant Box was captured, and Eli's sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were both killed.
12. A 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 earth on his head.
13. Eli, who was very anxious about the Covenant Box, was sitting on a seat beside the road, staring. The man spread the news throughout the town, and everyone cried out in fear.
14. Eli 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 98 years old and almost completely blind.)
16. The man said, “I have escaped from the battle and have run all the way here today.”Eli asked him, “What happened, my son?”
17. The 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!”
18. When the man mentioned the Covenant Box, Eli fell backwards 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.