What does 1 Samuel 4:14 mean?
Sitting by the roadside, waiting for news of the battle with the Philistines, Eli is deeply fearful about what might happen to the ark of the covenant (1 Samuel 4:1–4). He is afraid something will happen to it and God will be displeased with him and the people (1 Samuel 4:13).The old priest hears the people crying out in mourning over the report from the runner who has brought news from the battlefield. As the citizens of Shiloh learn that tens of thousands are dead and the army is disbanded and the ark of God is captured, they get loud. As the next verse notes, Eli is very old and completely blind (1 Samuel 4:15). Eli demands to know what the noise is about, and the runner comes to tell him. The news will fulfill an earlier prophecy (1 Samuel 2:34) and prove too much for the elderly man to hear (1 Samuel 4:18).