Daily Text and Bible Reading: Thursday, March 27 [Press play below]

3.1 Meanwhile, the boy Samuel was ministering to Jehovah before Eli, but word from Jehovah had become rare in those days; visions were not widespread.
3.2 One day Eli was lying down in his usual place, and his eyes had grown dim; he was not able to see.
3.3 The lamp of God had not yet been extinguished, and Samuel was lying in the temple of Jehovah, where the Ark of God was.
3.4 Jehovah then called Samuel. He answered: “Here I am.”
3.5 He ran to Eli and said: “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said: “I did not call. Lie down again.” So he went and lay down.
3.6 Jehovah called once again: “Samuel!” At this Samuel got up and went to Eli and said: “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said: “I did not call, my son. Lie down again.”
3.7 (Now Samuel had not yet come to know Jehovah, and the word of Jehovah had not yet been revealed to him.)
3.8 So Jehovah called again, a third time: “Samuel!” At that he got up and went to Eli and said: “Here I am, for you called me.” Eli then realized that it was Jehovah who was calling the boy.
3.9 So Eli said to Samuel: “Go, lie down, and if he calls you, you should say, ‘Speak, Jehovah, for your servant is listening.’” And Samuel went and lay down in his place.
3.10 Jehovah came and stood there, and he called as at the other times: “Samuel, Samuel!” At this Samuel said: “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
3.11 Jehovah said to Samuel: “Look! I am doing something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears about it tingle.
3.12 On that day I will carry out toward Eli all that I said about his house, from start to finish.
3.13 You must tell him that I am bringing a lasting judgment on his house for the error that he has known about, for his sons are cursing God, but he has not rebuked them.
3.14 That is why I have sworn to the house of Eli that the error of the house of Eli will never be atoned for by sacrifices or by offerings.”
3.15 Samuel lay down until the morning; then he opened the doors of Jehovah’s house. Samuel was afraid to tell Eli of the vision.
3.16 But Eli called for Samuel: “Samuel, my son!” At this he said: “Here I am.”
3.17 He asked: “What message did he speak to you? Please, do not hide it from me. May God do so to you and add to it if you hide from me a single word of all that he said to you.”
3.18 So Samuel told him everything, and he did not hide anything from him. Eli said: “It is Jehovah. Let him do what is good in his eyes.”
3.19 Samuel continued growing up, and Jehovah himself was with him and did not let any of all his words go unfulfilled.
3.20 All Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba became aware that Samuel had been confirmed as Jehovah’s prophet.
3.21 And Jehovah continued to appear in Shiloh, for Jehovah revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of Jehovah.

4.1 And the word of Samuel went out to all Israel. Then Israel went out to meet the Philistines in battle; they camped beside Ebenezer, and the Philistines were encamped at Aphek.
4.2 The Philistines drew up in battle formation to meet Israel, but the battle went badly and Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who struck down about 4,000 men from the battle line in the field.
4.3 When the people returned to the camp, the elders of Israel said: “Why did Jehovah allow us to be defeated today by the Philistines? Let us take the ark of Jehovah’s covenant with us from Shiloh, so that it may be with us and save us from the hand of our enemies.”
4.4 So the people sent men to Shiloh, and they carried from there the ark of the covenant of Jehovah of armies, who sits enthroned above the cherubs. The two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were also there with the ark of the covenant of the true God.
4.5 As soon as the ark of the covenant of Jehovah came into the camp, all the Israelites broke out into loud shouting, so that the earth shook.
4.6 When the Philistines heard the sound of the shouting, they said: “Why is there such loud shouting in the camp of the Hebrews?” Finally they learned that the Ark of Jehovah had come into the camp.
4.7 The Philistines became afraid, for they said: “God has come into the camp!” So they said: “Too bad for us, for nothing like this has ever happened before!
4.8 Too bad for us! Who will save us from the hand of this majestic God? This is the God who struck Egypt with every sort of slaughter in the wilderness.
4.9 Be courageous and act like men, you Philistines, so that you may not serve the Hebrews just as they have served you. Act like men and fight!”
4.10 So the Philistines fought and Israel was defeated, and each one fled to his tent. The slaughter was very great; on Israel’s side, 30,000 foot soldiers fell.
4.11 Moreover, the Ark of God was captured, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died.
4.12 A man of Benjamin ran from the battle line and arrived at Shiloh on that day with his garments ripped apart and dirt on his head.
4.13 When the man arrived, Eli was sitting on the seat by the roadside watching, because his heart was trembling over the Ark of the true God. The man went into the city to report the news, and the whole city began crying out.
4.14 When Eli heard the sound of the outcry, he asked: “What does the sound of this turmoil mean?” The same man hurried in and reported the news to Eli.
4.15 (Now Eli was 98 years old, and his eyes stared straight ahead, and he could not see.)
4.16 Then the man said to Eli: “I am the one who came from the battle line! Just today I fled from the battle line.” At this he asked: “What happened, my son?”
4.17 So the bearer of the news related: “Israel has fled from the Philistines, and there was a great defeat among the people; also your own two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, have died, and the Ark of the true God has been captured.”
4.18 At the moment he mentioned the Ark of the true God, Eli fell backward from his seat beside the gate, and his neck was broken and he died, for he was old and heavy. He had judged Israel for 40 years.
4.19 His daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant and close to giving birth. When she heard the report that the Ark of the true God had been captured and that her father-in-law and her husband had died, she doubled over and unexpectedly went into labor and gave birth.
4.20 As she was dying, the women standing by her said: “Do not be afraid, for you have given birth to a son.” She did not answer and did not pay attention to it.
4.21 But she named the boy Ichabod, saying: “Glory has gone away from Israel into exile,” referring to the capture of the Ark of the true God and what happened to her father-in-law and her husband.
4.22 She said: “Glory has gone away from Israel into exile, because the Ark of the true God has been captured.”

5.1 When the Philistines captured the Ark of the true God, they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod.
5.2 The Philistines took the Ark of the true God and brought it into the house of Dagon and set it beside Dagon.
5.3 When the Ashdodites got up early the next day, there was Dagon fallen facedown on the ground before the Ark of Jehovah. So they took Dagon and returned him to his place.
5.4 When they got up early in the morning on the following day, there was Dagon fallen facedown on the ground before the Ark of Jehovah. The head of Dagon and the palms of both his hands were cut off and were lying on the threshold. Only the fish part had been left intact.
5.5 That is why to this day, the priests of Dagon and all those who enter the house of Dagon do not walk on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod.
5.6 The hand of Jehovah was heavy against the Ashdodites, and he devastated them by striking Ashdod and its territories with piles.
5.7 When the men of Ashdod saw what was happening, they said: “Do not let the Ark of the God of Israel remain with us, for his hand has dealt harshly with us and our god Dagon.”
5.8 So they sent for and gathered all the lords of the Philistines and asked them: “What should we do with the Ark of the God of Israel?” They replied: “Let the Ark of the God of Israel be moved to Gath.” So they moved the Ark of the God of Israel there.
5.9 After they moved it there, the hand of Jehovah came against the city, bringing great panic. He struck the men of the city, from small to great, and piles broke out on them.
5.10 So they sent the Ark of the true God to Ekron, but as soon as the Ark of the true God came to Ekron, the Ekronites began to cry out: “They have brought the Ark of the God of Israel to us to put us and our people to death!”
5.11 Then they sent for and gathered all the lords of the Philistines and said: “Send the Ark of the God of Israel away; let it return to its place so that we and our people may not be put to death.” For the terror of death had spread through the whole city; the hand of the true God had been very heavy there,
5.12 and the men who did not die had been struck with piles. And the city’s cry for help ascended to the heavens.

6.1 The Ark of Jehovah was in Philistine territory for seven months.
6.2 The Philistines called the priests and the diviners and asked: “What should we do with the Ark of Jehovah? Let us know how we should send it back to its place.”
6.3 They replied: “If you send the ark of the covenant of Jehovah the God of Israel away, do not send it back without an offering. You should by all means return to him a guilt offering. Only then will you be healed, and it will be made known to you why his hand has not turned away from you.”
6.4 So they asked: “What guilt offering should we send to him?” They said: “According to the number of the lords of the Philistines, send five golden piles and five golden mice, for the same scourge has afflicted every one of you and your lords.
6.5 You should make images of your piles and images of your mice that are bringing the land to ruin, and you should honor the God of Israel. Perhaps he will lighten the weight of his hand that is on you and your god and your land.
6.6 Why should you harden your heart as Egypt and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When He dealt harshly with them, they had to send Israel away, and they departed.
6.7 Now prepare a new wagon and two cows that have calves and have never been under a yoke. Then hitch the cows to the wagon, but take their calves back home, away from them.
6.8 Take the Ark of Jehovah and place it on the wagon, and put the golden articles that you are sending to him as a guilt offering in a box next to it. Then send it on its way
6.9 and watch: If it goes up the road to Beth-shemesh, to its own territory, then he is the one who has done this great evil to us. But if not, we will know that it was not his hand that struck us; it happened to us by coincidence.”
6.10 The men did accordingly. They took two cows that had calves and hitched them to the wagon, and the calves they penned up at home.
6.11 Then they put the Ark of Jehovah on the wagon, as well as the box containing the golden mice and the images of their piles.
6.12 And the cows went straight ahead on the road to Beth-shemesh. They stayed on the one highway, mooing as they went; they did not turn either to the right or to the left. All the while the lords of the Philistines were walking behind them as far as the boundary of Beth-shemesh.
6.13 The people of Beth-shemesh were reaping the wheat harvest in the valley plain. When they raised their eyes and saw the Ark, they were overjoyed at seeing it.
6.14 The wagon came into the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite and stopped there near a large stone. So they chopped up the wood of the wagon, and they offered the cows as a burnt offering to Jehovah.
6.15 The Levites took down the Ark of Jehovah and the box that was with it, which contained the golden articles, and they put them on the large stone. The men of Beth-shemesh offered up burnt offerings and made sacrifices on that day to Jehovah.
6.16 When the five lords of the Philistines saw it, they returned to Ekron on that day.
6.17 Now these are the golden piles that the Philistines sent as a guilt offering to Jehovah: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, one for Ekron.
6.18 And the number of the golden mice corresponded to the number of all the cities of the Philistines that belonged to the five lords—both the fortified cities and the villages in the open country. And the large stone upon which they rested the Ark of Jehovah serves as a witness down to this day in the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite.
6.19 But God struck down the men of Beth-shemesh, because they had looked upon the Ark of Jehovah. He struck down 50,070 among the people, and the people began mourning because Jehovah had struck them down with a great slaughter.
6.20 So the men of Beth-shemesh asked: “Who will be able to stand before Jehovah, this holy God, and to whom will he go away from us?”
6.21 So they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath-jearim, saying: “The Philistines have returned the Ark of Jehovah. Come down and take it up with you.”