12 That same day a soldier from the tribe of Benjamin ran from the battlefront to Shiloh. He had torn his clothes and put earth on his head to show his sorrow.
13 He went into town and told the news about the battle, and everyone started crying.Eli was afraid that something might happen to the sacred chest. So he was sitting on his chair beside the road, just waiting.
14-15 He was ninety-eight years old and blind, but he could hear everyone crying, and he asked, “What's all that noise?”The soldier hurried over and told Eli,
16 “I escaped from the fighting today and ran here.”“Young man, what happened?” Eli asked.
17 “Israel ran away from the Philistines,” the soldier answered. “Many of our people were killed, including your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas. But worst of all, the sacred chest was captured.”
18 Eli was still sitting on a chair beside the wall of the town gate. And when the man said that the Philistines had taken the sacred chest, Eli fell backwards. He was a very heavy old man, and the fall broke his neck and killed him. He had been a leader of Israel for forty years.
19 The wife of Phinehas was about to give birth. And soon after she heard that the sacred chest had been captured and that her husband and his father had died, her baby came. The birth was very hard,