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War of the Jews with the Philistines. Loss of the Ark of the Covenant. Death of the high priest and judge Elijah. 1 Samuel 4:7. And the Philistines were afraid, for they said, “That God has come to their camp.” And they said: Woe to us! for nothing like this happened either yesterday or the third day; The pagans thought that each people had its own god or even several gods. The Ark of the Covenant was accepted by the Philistines as an image, or visible container, of the supposed national Jewish deity - Jehovah, similar to those images that the pagans themselves had. 1 Samuel 4:10. And the Philistines fought, and the Israelites were defeated, and every man fled to his tent, and the defeat was very great, and thirty thousand of the Israelites fell. “And the Israelites were struck,” being the fulfillment of the formidable definition of God’s Justice in relation to the ungodly house of the high priest and judge of the Jews Eli (1 Samuel 2:27–36), the defeat was at the same time a tangible punishment of the people for their frivolous and unauthorized treatment of their greatest shrine - the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. You might be interested in: