1 Samuel 14:18

18. Bring hither the ark of God In his excitement and alarm on finding Jonathan and his armourbearer gone, Saul is about to commit as grievous a blunder as did the elders of Israel in a former war with the Philistines. 1 Samuel 4:3.

For the ark of God was at that time with the children of Israel That is, it was at Kirjath-jearim, (1 Samuel 7:1,) and in the possession of the Israelites, from whom it had not been taken since its return from the land of the Philistines. The Hebrew text ובני ישׂראל , and the children of Israel, gives no sense, and must be an error of the copyist for לבני or בבני , to or among the children of Israel. This need not be understood as meaning that the ark was with Saul’s six hundred at Gibeah, but, as explained above, in the possession of the Israelites. This seems to us the most satisfactory way of explaining this verse as it stands in the present Hebrew text. But there are grave reasons for doubting the integrity of this text, and for adopting the reading of the Septuagint, which has ephod instead of ark. The ephod, not the ark, was used for inquiring of God, and the expression, bring hither the ark, is strange in this connexion, but bring hither the ephod is common. See 1 Samuel 23:9; 1 Samuel 30:7. The Septuagint reads: Bring hither the ephod, for he ( Ahiah) bore the ephod in that day before Israel.