1 Samuel 4:17 meaning and explanation
The messenger answered, “Israel has fled before the Philistines, and there has been a great slaughter among the people. Your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are both dead, and the ark of God has been captured.”
1 Samuel 4:17, Berean Standard Bible
Explanation preview
The messenger, a Benjamite who fled the battlefield, answers old Eli's anxious question with a report that arrives in three blows: the army has fled, the people have been slaughtered, and Eli's sons Hophni and Phinehas are dead. The final word, that the ark of God has been captured, is the heaviest, since Eli had been trembling for the ark rather than for his sons.
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