The man said to Eli, “I am he who came out of the army, and I fled today out of the army.”
He said, “How did the matter go, my son?”
He who brought the news answered, “Israel has fled before the Philistines, and there has been also a great slaughter among the people.
Your two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and God’s ark has been captured.”
When he made mention of God’s ark, Eli fell from off his seat backward by the side of the gate; and his neck broke, and he died, for he was an old man and heavy.
He had judged Israel forty years.