the high-priestly dignity would be wrested from his house, and
once more conferred upon the family of Eleazar, and, furthermore,
his descendant would all die in their prime. The latter doom can be
averted by good deeds, devotion in prayer, and zealous study of the
Torah. These means were often employed successfully. (29) But
against the loss of the high priest's office there is no specific. The
house of Eli forfeited it irrevocably. Abiathar, the great-grandson
of Eli's son Phinehas, (30) the last of the high priest of the line of
Ithamar, had to submit to the fate of seeing David transfer his
dignity to Zadok, in whose family it remained forever.

The sons of Eli brought misfortune also upon the whole of Israel.
To their sins and the ease with which the people condoned them
was attributed the unhappy issue of the war with the Philistines.
The holy Ark, the receptacle for the broken table of the law, which
accompanied the people to the camp, (31) did not have the
expected effect of compelling victory for the Israelites. What Eli
feared happened. He enjoined upon his sons not to appear before
him if they should survive the capture of the Ark. (32) But they did
not survive it; they died upon the battlefield on which their nation
had suffered bitter defeat. The Philistines, to be sure, had to pay
dearly for their victory, especially those who had spoken
contemptuous words when the holy Ark had appeared in the
Israelitish camp: "The God of the Israelites had ten plagues, and
those he expended upon the Egyptians. He no longer has it in His
power to do harm." But God said: "Do ye but wait to see. I shall
bring plague down upon you like of which hath never been." (33)
This new plague consisted in mice crawling forth out of the earth,
and jerking the entrails out of the bodies of the Philistines while
they eased nature. If the Philistines sought to protect themselves by