At that time, a lot of soldiers from Philistia came together to fight the Israel mob. The Israel mob camped near a place called Ebenezer. The Philistia mob camped near a place called Afek. 2 The 2 armies met in the middle for a big fight. The Philistia mob killed dead lots of the Israel mob. 4,000 of them died.

3 After that, the Israel mob went back to their camp. The elders asked each other, “Why did God let them beat our mob? Let’s go to Shiloh, to get God’s special box. If we have that box with us, God will help us whenever we fight the Philistia mob.”

4 So they sent some men to Shiloh to get God’s special box. They thought, “That box will be with us, so God will help us.” Eli’s 2 sons, Hofni and Finiyas, they went along too, to watch over the special box. God is the boss of everything. He sits on that box between the 2 statues of angel messengers.* Exodus 25:22

5 After they brought the box to their camp, the Israel mob were so happy that they shouted out real loud. Their shouts were so loud they made the ground shake. 6 The Philistia mob heard it, and they asked each other, “What’s happening? Why are the Israel mob shouting?”

Then they heard that the Israel mob had God’s special box with them, 7 and they got frightened, and they said to each other, “Oh no. Their God has come to them. This is the first time this sort of thing has happened to us. Now we’re in big trouble. 8 Nobody can save us from their powerful gods. Their gods helped them when they were in the desert. They hit the Egypt mob with all kinds of sickness and other trouble. 9 So we Philistia mob, we have to stay strong. We’ve got to beat them, so that we will be their bosses, otherwise they might become our bosses. Don’t be afraid of them. Let’s be real men and hit them hard.”

10-11 And they really did get properly strong. They attacked the Israel mob again, and they killed dead lots of Israel’s soldiers. 30,000 of them died. Then the Philistia mob stole God’s special box. And they killed dead Eli’s 2 sons, Hofni and Finiyas. They died there too. The other Israel soldiers, they just ran away. They ran straight back home.

12 On that day a messenger ran from the fighting with the bad news. He was from Benjamin’s tribe. He tore his clothes and put dirt on his head, to show he was upset about it, and he ran all the way to Shiloh.

13-15 Eli was a really old man by this time. He was 98 years old, and he was blind. He sat in a chair beside the road. He worried about God’s special box. He was afraid something bad might happen to it.

After the messenger arrived at that place, he went around and told the bad news, and lots of people started to cry. Eli heard it and called out to the man, “What’s happening? Why is everybody crying like that?”

16 The man ran over to Eli and said, “Old man, I ran away from the fighting.”

The old man asked, “What happened?”

17 He answered, “We Israel mob ran away from the Philistia mob. They killed dead lots of our soldiers, and your 2 sons are dead too. And they even stole God’s special box from us.”

18 Eli was still on his chair at the door. After he heard that the Philistia mob stole the special box, he fell over backwards, and he broke his neck and died. You see, he was an old man and very fat. He was boss of the Israel mob for 40 years.