Study Desk

And she said, The glory is departed from Israel; for the ark of God is taken.

AND the Philistines took the ark God, and brought it from the Rock of Help to Ashdod.

Then the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it into the house of Dagon and set it by the side of Dagon.

And when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, The ark of the God of Israel shall not stay with us; for his hand is heavy upon us and upon Dagon our god.

They sent therefore and gathered all the lords of the Philistines to them, and said, What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel? And they answered, Let the ark of the God of Israel be returned to Gath. So they took back the ark of the God of Israel there.

Therefore they sent the ark of God to Ekron. And when the ark of God came to Ekron, the Ekronites cried out, saying, They have brought the ark of the God of Israel to us, to slay us and our people.

So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and said, Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it return to its own place, that it may not slay us and our people. For the fear of death caused a panic that spread throughout all the city; the hand of God was very heavy there.

And they said, If you send away the ark of the LORD God of Israel, do not send it away empty; but you must surely bring trespass offerings to it; then you shall be healed, and it shall be known to you why his hand is not removed from you.

Wherefore you shall make likenesses of your boils and images of the mice that are destroying the land; and you shall give glory to the God of Israel; perhaps he will remove his hand from you and from your god and from your land.

And they laid the ark of God upon the cart, and the box with the mice of gold and the images of their boils.

And these are the golden boils which the Philistines had brought as offerings to God: for Ashdod one, for Gaza one, for Ashkelon one, for Gath one, for Ekron one;

And the men of Beth-shemesh said, Who is able to stand before this holy LORD God? And who shall carry up from us the ark?

And the children of Israel said to Samuel, Do not cease to pray before the LORD our God for us, that he may save us from the hand of the Philistines.

But his servant said to him, Behold, there is a man of God in this city, and he is an honorable man in the eyes of the people; all that he says comes surely to pass; now let us go there; perhaps he can tell us about the errand for which we have come.

Then Saul said to his servant, Behold, if we go, what shall we bring to the man of God? For the bread is spent in our bags and there are no provisions to bring a present to the man of God, because we have nothing.

And the servant answered his master again, and said, Behold, I have here at hand the fourth part of a shekel of silver; let us give it to the man of God, that he may tell us about our errand.

(Because formerly in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, thus he said, Come, let us go to the seer; for he who is now called a prophet, before was called a seer.)

Then Saul said to his servant, Well said; come, let us go. So they went to the city where the man of God was.

And as they were going down to the end of the city, Samuel said to Saul, Tell the servant to pass on before us, but you stop where you are, that I may tell you the word of God.

Then when you shall go on from there and you shall come to the oak of Tabor, behold, you will find there three men going up to God to Beth-el, one carrying three kids and another carrying three loaves of bread and another carrying a skin of wine;