The Philistines were scared because they thought that gods had come to the camp. They said, “Too bad for us! We’ve never seen anything like this!

A man who was from there replied, “And who is their father?” Therefore this became a proverb: “Is even Saul among the prophets?”

Saul and all the army that was with him assembled and marched into battle, where they found the Philistines in total panic killing one another with their swords.

Then Saul said, “All you leaders of the army come here. Find out how this sin occurred today.

So Achish gave him Ziklag on that day. (For that reason Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah until this very day.)

The messenger replied, “Israel has fled from the Philistines! The army has suffered a great defeat! Your two sons, Hophni and Phineas, are dead! The ark of God has been captured!”

So they assembled all the leaders of the Philistines and said, “Get the ark of the God of Israel out of here! Let it go back to its own place so that it won’t kill us and our people!” The terror of death was throughout the entire city; God was attacking them very severely there.