She named the child Ichabod (which means “Where is the glory?”), for she said, “Israel’s glory is gone.” She named him this because the Ark of God had been captured and because her father-in-law and husband were dead.
Parallel translations
- WEB She named the child Ichabod, saying, “The glory has departed from Israel”; because God’s ark was taken, and because of her father-in-law and her husband.
- KJV And she named the child Ichabod, saying, The glory is departed from Israel: because the ark of God was taken, and because of her father in law and her husband.
- BSB And she named the boy Ichabod, saying, “The glory has departed from Israel,” because the ark of God had been captured and her father-in-law and her husband had been killed.
- NKJV Then she named the child Ichabod, saying, “The glory has departed from Israel!” because the ark of God had been captured and because of her father-in-law and her husband.
- NASB And she named the boy Ichabod, saying, “The glory has departed from Israel,” because the ark of God had been taken and because of her father-in-law and her husband.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
She names her son Ichabod, meaning 'the glory has departed from Israel,' because the ark was captured. The lost ark symbolizes the apparent departure of God's glory from His people.
Overview
With her dying breath she gives the child a name memorializing the national tragedy: God's glory has gone. The capture of the ark represents the withdrawal of Yahweh's manifest presence due to Israel's sin. Yet the wider story will show God's glory was never truly defeated, anticipating the day when God's glory returns fully in Christ (John 1:14).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Ps 26:8Yahweh, I love the habitation of your house, the place where your glory dwells.
- Jer 2:11Has a nation changed its gods, which really are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit.
- Ps 78:61and delivered his strength into captivity, his glory into the adversary’s hand.
- Ps 78:64Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows couldn’t weep.
- 1 Sam 4:11God’s ark was taken; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were slain.
- Hos 9:12Though they bring up their children, yet I will bereave them, so that not a man shall be left. Indeed, woe also to them when I depart from them!
- Ps 106:20Thus they exchanged their glory for an image of a bull that eats grass.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The rise of the anointed king after Israel's failed first choice points to the true Anointed One (Messiah means 'anointed'), the shepherd-king after God's own heart from Bethlehem.
How 1 Samuel 4:21 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.