4:14 When Eli heard the outcry, 4 he said, “What is this commotion?” 5 The man quickly came and told Eli. 4:15 Now Eli was ninety-eight years old and his eyes looked straight ahead; 6 he was unable to see.
4:16 The man said to Eli, “I am the one who came from the battle lines! Just today I fled from the battle lines!” Eli 7 asked, “How did things go, my son?” 4:17 The messenger replied, “Israel has fled from 8 the Philistines! The army has suffered a great defeat! Your two sons, Hophni and Phineas, are dead! The ark of God has been captured!”
4:18 When he mentioned the ark of God, Eli 9 fell backward from his chair beside the gate. He broke his neck and died, for he 10 was old and heavy. He had judged Israel for forty years.
4:19 His daughter-in-law, the wife of Phineas, was pregnant and close to giving birth. When she heard that the ark of God was captured and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she doubled over and gave birth. But her labor pains were too much for her. 4:20 As she was dying, the women who were there with her said, “Don’t be afraid! You have given birth to a son!” But she did not reply or pay any attention. 11
4:21 She named the boy Ichabod, 12 saying, “The glory has departed from Israel,” referring to the capture of the ark of God and the deaths of her father-in-law and her husband. 4:22 She said, “The glory has departed from Israel, because the ark of God has been captured.”
1 tc Read with many medieval Hebrew
2 tn Heb “his heart was trembling.”
3 tn Heb “and the man came to report in the city.”
4 tn Heb “the sound of the cry.”
5 tn Heb “the sound of this commotion.”
6 tn Heb “were set” or “were fixed,” i.e., without vision.
7 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Eli) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
8 tn Heb “before.”
9 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Eli) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
10 tn Heb “the man.”
11 tn Heb “and she did not set her heart.”
12 sn The name Ichabod (אִי־כָבוֹד) may mean, “Where is the glory?”