Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Today Israel goes to war with one of their most well-known enemies, the Philistines.

Israel loses and they attribute the loss to God, but instead of consulting him to find out where they went wrong, they decide that what they need is the arc of the covenant.

They think it'll act like a lucky charm for them, so they go to Shiloh to retrieve it.

Hoffman and Phineas, Eli's wicked sons, helped carry it off to battle.

Then Israel loses this battle too, along with 30,000 men.

Eli's back home at Shiloh when a messenger comes to tell him everything. We lost the battle, your sons are dead, and the

arc has been captured. Eli knew his sons were going to die on the same day because this was

prophesied to him in what we read yesterday. So while that's heartbreaking, it comes as no surprise.

However, having the ARC stolen

was an unexpected tragedy for the entire nation of Israel. This was by far the most significant loss of all.

When Eli heard that bit of news, he fell over, broke his neck, and died.

Meanwhile, Eli's grandson Icabat is about to be born. His father has just died in battle and then his mother dies in childbirth.

Back at the battlefield, the Philistines believe they've defeated

yawe since they've captured what they think is him.

They've conflated God with the golden box that serves as his earthly throne.

They put the arc in their pagan temple alongside the God they worship, Degon.

So Yawe does something that is both humorous and weighty.

He knocks the statue of Degon face down in front of the arc in a posture of worship.

The Philistine set Dagon back up again, and then the next day not only is Dagon prostrate

in front of the arc again, but the hands and head of the statue of Dagon have been severed and are set in the entryway, which makes it clear that they didn't just break off during the fall.

Yawe continues to afflict the Philistines. There are five main Philistine cities and they keep

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