Soon after, Samuel's message from God has gone out across all Israel, the Israelites went to war with the Philistines. Israel set up camp at Ebenezer, and the Philistines set theirs at Aphek.
When the battle began, Israel was badly defeated—about four thousand soldiers were killed.
Confused and shaken, the elders of Israel asked, "Why did the Lord let us be defeated today?" They decided to bring the Ark of the Covenant from Shiloh, believing it would save them in the next fight.
So the Ark—representing the presence of the Lord Almighty who sits between the cherubim—was brought to the camp. Eli's sons, Hophni and Phinehas, came with it.
The moment the Ark entered Israel's camp, the people shouted so loudly that the ground itself trembled.
The Philistines heard the noise and panicked.
"A god has entered their camp! We're finished! These are the same gods that struck Egypt with plagues!" they cried.
But then they encouraged each other: "Be strong! Fight like men, or we will become their slaves!"
The two armies clashed again, but this time Israel's defeat was far worse. Thirty thousand soldiers died, the Ark of God was captured, and Eli's sons—Hophni and Phinehas—were killed.
That same day, a man from Benjamin ran from the battlefield to Shiloh with torn clothes and dust on his head, a sign of grief.
Eli was sitting by the road, anxiously waiting for news about the Ark. When the man entered the town and announced what had happened, the whole city cried out.
Eli heard the wailing and asked what was going on. The man came to him—Eli was old, blind, and ninety-eight years old—and told him everything.
He said, "Israel has fled. We suffered terrible losses. Your two sons are dead. And…the Ark of God has been captured."
At the mention of the Ark, Eli fell backward off his chair by the city gate. He broke his neck and died, having judged Israel for forty years.
Meanwhile, Phinehas' wife was pregnant and close to giving birth. When she heard the news—the Ark taken, her husband and father-in-law gone—she went into labor from the shock. As she was dying, the women caring for her said, "Do not fear, you have a son."
But she didn't respond.
She named the boy Ichabod, meaning "The glory has departed from Israel."
For she said, "The glory has left us, because the Ark of God has been captured."