Study Desk

Then everyone left in your family line will come and bow down before him for a piece of silver and a loaf of bread and plead, "Appoint me to some priestly office so I can have food to eat."'"

One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place.

And he ran to Eli and said, "Here I am; you called me." But Eli said, "I did not call; go back and lie down." So he went and lay down.

So Eli told Samuel, "Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord , for your servant is listening.'" So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

"What was it he said to you?" Eli asked. "Do not hide it from me. May God deal with you, be it ever so severely, if you hide from me anything he told you."

So Samuel told him everything, hiding nothing from him. Then Eli said, "He is the Lord ; let him do what is good in his eyes."

When the soldiers returned to camp, the elders of Israel asked, "Why did the Lord bring defeat on us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the Lord 's covenant from Shiloh, so that he may go with us and save us from the hand of our enemies."

So the people sent men to Shiloh, and they brought back the ark of the covenant of the Lord Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim. And Eli's two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.

So the Philistines fought, and the Israelites were defeated and every man fled to his tent. The slaughter was very great; Israel lost thirty thousand foot soldiers.

who was ninety-eight years old and whose eyes had failed so that he could not see.

So they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and asked them, "What shall we do with the ark of the god of Israel?" They answered, "Have the ark of the god of Israel moved to Gath." So they moved the ark of the God of Israel.

So they sent the ark of God to Ekron. As the ark of God was entering Ekron, the people of Ekron cried out, "They have brought the ark of the god of Israel around to us to kill us and our people."

So they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and said, "Send the ark of the god of Israel away; let it go back to its own place, or it will kill us and our people." For death had filled the city with panic; God's hand was very heavy on it.

Why do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh did? When Israel's god dealt harshly with them, did they not send the Israelites out so they could go on their way?

So they did this. They took two such cows and hitched them to the cart and penned up their calves.

So the men of Kiriath Jearim came and took up the ark of the Lord . They brought it to Abinadab's house on the hill and consecrated Eleazar his son to guard the ark of the Lord .

So Samuel said to all the Israelites, "If you are returning to the Lord with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths and commit yourselves to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines."

So the Israelites put away their Baals and Ashtoreths, and served the Lord only.

So the Philistines were subdued and they stopped invading Israel's territory. Throughout Samuel's lifetime, the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines.

So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah.