And they said, Let us be strong and fight like men, that we may not be slaves to these Jews!
So they fought once more with the Jews, and slew a host of them, and the rest fled to their tents. And the ark of the Lord fell in-to the hands of the foe, and E-li's two sons were slain.
And the same day a man ran down to Shi-loh, with his clothes rent, and bits of earth on his head to show his grief.
E-li sat on a seat by the way-side, where he kept watch, for he was in great fear lest harm should come to the ark of God. And when the man came through the crowd and told that the ark was lost, all cried out with great fear. And when E-li heard the noise, he said, What is it? What do those sounds mean? For his eyes were dim with age, and he could not see.
And the man ran up to E-li and said, I am he that came out of the fight, and I fled from there to-day.
And E-li said, What word hast thou, my son?
THE RE-TURN OF THE ARK.
And he said that Is-ra-el had been put to flight with great loss, his two sons were dead, and the ark of God in the hands of the Phil-is-tines.
When the man spoke of the ark of God, E-li fell off the seat by the side of the gate, and broke his neck, and died there. And he had been a high priest and a judge in Is-ra-el for two-score years.