1 Samuel 7:1 Commentary and Bible Study

The ark had to be moved again. They wouldn't keep it in Bethshemesh because of the death and the judgement. ‘And the men of Kirjathjearim came, and fetched up the ark of the LORD, and brought it into the house of Abinadab in the hill, and sanctified Eleazar his son to keep the ark of the LORD.’ The Philistines have returned the ark. It has been taken to a priestly city in Israel, but there it met with great irreverence, and a lack of form and order, and that led to catastrophe, and the priests in that city wanted it sent away. And it was sent away and it was sent to this city of Kirjathjearim, not a priestly city, but where it got far better treatment and it was given a house and a man was seriously set aside to care for it, and it was treated, it appears, with great reverence.