1 Samuel 4:5-10

4:5 When the ark of the covenant of the Lord arrived at the camp, all Israel shouted so loudly ¹  that the ground shook.

4:6 When the Philistines heard the sound of the shout, they said, “What is this loud shout in the camp of the Hebrews?” Then they realized that the ark of the Lord had arrived at the camp. 4:7 The Philistines were scared because they thought that gods had come to the camp. ²  They said, “Too bad for ³  us! We’ve never seen anything like this! 4:8 Too bad for us! Who can deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all sorts of plagues in the desert! 4:9 Be strong and act like men, you Philistines, or else you will wind up serving the Hebrews the way they have served you! Act like men and fight!”

4:10 So the Philistines fought. Israel was defeated; they all ran home. ⁴  The slaughter was very great; thirty thousand foot soldiers fell in battle.

[4:5]  ¹ tn Heb “shouted [with] a great shout.”

[4:7]  ² tn The Hebrew text has a direct quote, “because they said, ‘Gods have come to the camp.’” Even though the verb translated “have come” is singular, the following subject should be taken as plural (“gods”), as v. 8 indicates. Some emend the verb to a plural form.

[4:7]  ³ tn Traditionally “woe to.” They thought disaster was imminent.

[4:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “and they fled, each to his tents.”