1 Samuel 14 · a question people ask
Did Saul call for the ark or for the ephod (14:18)?
The WEB reads, "Saul said to Ahijah, ‘Bring God’s ark here.’ For God’s ark was with the children of Israel at that time" (14:18). In Hebrew, both times, the word is aron, ark (tap ark), the word of chapters 4 to 7 (4:3, 7:2). English Bibles differ at this verse: some read "ark", as the WEB does, and some read "ephod". The chapter has already said that Ahijah was "wearing an ephod" (14:3), and the last the book said of the ark, it was in Kiriath Jearim (7:1-2). 14:18 doesn't say how these fit together. Then "While Saul talked to the priest, the tumult that was in the camp of the Philistines went on and increased; and Saul said to the priest, ‘Withdraw your hand!’" (14:19), and the chapter doesn't say what the priest was doing with his hand.
The verses
“Saul said to Ahijah, “Bring God’s ark here.” For God’s ark was with the children of Israel at that time. While Saul talked to the priest, the tumult that was in the camp of the Philistines went on and increased; and Saul said to the priest, “Withdraw your hand!””
“including Ahijah the son of Ahitub, Ichabod’s brother, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eli the priest of the LORD in Shiloh, wearing an ephod. The people didn’t know that Jonathan was gone.”
“When the people had come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why has the LORD defeated us today before the Philistines? Let’s get the ark of the LORD’s covenant out of Shiloh and bring it to us, that it may come among us and save us out of the hand of our enemies.””
“The men of Kiriath Jearim came and took the LORD’s ark, and brought it into Abinadab’s house on the hill, and consecrated Eleazar his son to keep the LORD’s ark. From the day that the ark stayed in Kiriath Jearim, the time was long—for it was twenty years; and all the house of Israel lamented after the LORD.”