The Ark Is Captured and Eli Falls Dead

Israel brings the Ark of God into battle as a weapon. The Philistines kill 30,000 soldiers and capture the Ark. Eli's two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, die on the same day. A messenger runs to Shiloh. Eli, ninety-eight years old and nearly blind, sits beside the gate. When he hears that the Ark is taken, he falls off his chair backward, breaks his neck, and dies. He had judged Israel forty years.