He who brought the news answered, Israel is fled before the Philistines, and there has been also a great slaughter among the people, and your two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God is taken.
"The purpose of the story in 1 Samuel 4-6 of the ark’s imprisonment in Philistia and its travels to different Philistine cities, as well as to Beth-Shemesh, is to give an historical background for the Philistines’ rule over the whole country prior to the emergence of the Israelite state which could still accentuate Yahweh’s supremacy as an unconquerable deity. The story explains how Yahweh finally became superior to his captors." [Note: G. W. Ahlstrom, "The Travels of the Ark: A Religio-Political Composition," Journal of Near Eastern Studies 43 (1984):143. See also Antony F. Campbell, "Yahweh and the Ark: A Case Study in Narrative," Journal of Biblical Literature 98:1 (1979):31-43.] 