Ebenezer

Eben-ezer (UPDV's spelling) names two related sites in the early Samuel narrative — first as the ground where Israel's army camps in the disastrous battle that loses the ark, and finally as the stone Samuel sets up after Yahweh's victory at Mizpah, marking the turn from defeat to deliverance.

Defeat at Eben-ezer

The opening of the encounter sets the place: "Now Israel went out against the Philistines to battle, and encamped beside Eben-ezer: and the Philistines encamped in Aphek" (1Sa 4:1). The first engagement costs Israel four thousand men (1Sa 4:2). The elders try to break the trend by fetching the ark out of Shiloh, but the second engagement is worse: "And the Philistines fought, and Israel was struck, and they fled every man to his tent: and there was a very great slaughter; for there fell of Israel thirty thousand footmen. And the ark of God was taken; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were slain" (1Sa 4:10-11). The news kills Eli (1Sa 4:18); the dying wife of Phinehas names the child Ichabod, "The glory has departed from Israel; because the ark of God was taken" (1Sa 4:21-22).

The ark removed from Eben-ezer

The Philistines do not stay on the field; they carry the ark off as plunder. "Now the Philistines had taken the ark of God, and they brought it from Eben-ezer to Ashdod" (1Sa 5:1). Eben-ezer thus marks both the loss and the start of the ark's journey through Philistine cities.

The memorial stone

Years later, after Yahweh defeats the Philistines at Mizpah, Samuel returns to the same theatre to plant a marker. "Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpah and Shen, and called the name of it Eben-ezer, saying, So far Yahweh has helped us" (1Sa 7:12). The stone takes the same name as the place of defeat and gives it a new content — the help that has carried Israel up to this point.