ey said:
4:8. Woe to us: for there was no such great joy yesterday, and the day
before: Woe to us. Who shall deliver us from the hand of these high
Gods? these are the Gods that struck Egypt with all the plagues in the
desert.
4:9. Take courage, and behave like men, ye Philistines: lest you come to
be servants to the Hebrews, as they have served you: take courage and
fight.
4:10. So the Philistines fought, and Israel was overthrown, and every
man fled to his own dwelling: and there was an exceeding great
slaughter; for there fell of Israel thirty thousand footmen.
4:11. And the ark of God was taken: and the two sons of Heli, Ophni and
Phinees, were slain.
4:12. And there ran a man of Benjamin out of the army, and came to Silo
the same day, with his clothes rent, and his head strewed with dust.
4:13. And when he was come, Heli sat upon a stool over against the way,
watching. For his heart was fearful for the ark of God. And when the man
was come into the city, he told it: and all the city cried out.
4:14. And Heli heard the noise of the cry, and he said: What meaneth the
noise of this uproar? But he made haste, and came, and told Heli.
4:15. Now Heli was ninety and eight years old, and his eyes were dim,
and he could not see.
4:16. And he said to Heli: I am he that came from the battle, and have
fled out of the field this day. And he said to him: What is there done,
my son?
4:17. And he that brought the news answered, and said: Israel is fled
before the Philistines, and there has been a great slaughter of the
people: moreover thy two sons, Ophni and Phinees, are dead: and the ark
of God is taken.
4:18. And when he had named the ark of God, he fell from his stool
backwards by the door, and broke his neck and died. For he was an old
man, and far advanced in years: And he judged Israel forty years.
Named the ark, etc... There is great reason, by all these circumstances,
to hope that Heli died in a state of grace; and by his temporal
punishments escaped the eternal.
4:19. And his daughter in law, the wife of Phinees, was big with child,
and near her time: and hearing the news that the ark of God was taken,
and her father in law, and her husband, were dead, she bowed herself and
fell in labour: for her pains came upon her on a sudden.
4:20. And when she was upon the point of death, they that stood about
her said to her: Fear not, for thou hast borne a son. She answered them
not, nor gave heed t
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