reads "ephod" for ark, while in 1 Chronicles xiii. 3 David says
that "we sought not unto it [the ark] in the days of Saul."
Nor does Samuel seem to have paid any regard to the ark after
its return from Philistia; though, in his childhood, he is said
to have slept in "the temple of Jahveh, where the ark of Elohim
was" (1 Sam. iii. 3), at Shiloh and there to have been the seer
of the earliest apparitions vouchsafed to him by Jahveh.
The space between the cherubim or winged images on the canopy or
cover (Kapporeth) of this holy chest was held to be the
special seat of Jahveh--the place selected for a temporary
residence of the Supreme Elohim who had, after Aaron and
Phineas, Eli and his sons for priests and seers. And, when the
ark was carried to the camp at Eben-ezer, there can be no doubt
that the Israelites, no less than the Philistines, held that
"Elohim is come into the camp" (iv. 7), and that the one, as
much as the other, conceived that the Israelites had summoned to
their aid a powerful ally in "these (or this) mighty Elohim"--
elsewhere called Jahve-Sabaoth, the Jahveh of Hosts. If the
"temple" at Shiloh was the pentateuchal tabernacle, as is
suggested by the name of "tent of meeting" given to it in
1 Samuel ii. 22, it was essentially a large tent, though
constituted of very expensive and ornate materials; if, on the
other hand, it was a different edifice, there can be little
doubt that this "house of Jahveh" was built on the model of an
ordinary house of the time. But there is not the slightest
evidence that, during the reign of Saul, any greater importance
attached to this seat of the cult of Jahveh than to others.
Sanctuaries, and "high places" for sacrifice, were scattered all
over the country from Dan to Beersheba. And, as Samuel is said
to have gone up to one of these high places to bless the