7. they were afraid, and said, “A god has come into their camp! We're lost! Nothing like this has ever happened to us before!
8. Who can save us from those powerful gods? They are the gods who slaughtered the Egyptians in the desert!
9. Be brave, Philistines! Fight like men, or we will become slaves to the Hebrews, just as they were our slaves. So fight like men!”
10. The Philistines fought hard and defeated the Israelites, who went running to their homes. There was a great slaughter: 30,000 Israelite soldiers were killed.
11. God's Covenant Box was captured, and Eli's sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were both killed.
12. A man from the tribe of Benjamin ran all the way from the battlefield to Shiloh and arrived there the same day. To show his grief, he had torn his clothes and put earth on his head.
13. Eli, who was very anxious about the Covenant Box, was sitting on a seat beside the road, staring. The man spread the news throughout the town, and everyone cried out in fear.