Whether “Ahiah” or “Ahijah” is the same person as “Ahimelech the son of Ahitub” (see the marginal reference), or whether Ahimelech was the brother or son of Ahijah, and his successor in the priesthood, it is impossible to say certainly. Most probably “Ahijah” and “Ahimilech” are variations of the same name; the latter element in each alone being different, מלך melek (king) being substituted for the divine name יה yâhh. Compare “Eliakim” and “Jehoiakim” 2 Kings 23:34, “Eliab” and “Eliel” 1Ch 6:27, 1 Chronicles 6:34.
This fragment of a genealogy is a very valuable help to the chronology. The grandson of Phinehas, the son of Eli, was now High Priest; and Samuel, who was probably a few years older than Ahitub the son of Phinehas, was now an old man. All this indicates a period of about 50 years or upward from the taking of the ark by the Philistines.
The Lord’s priest in Shiloh - But as Eli was so emphatically known and described in 1 Sam. 1–4, as God’s Priest at Shiloh, and as there is every reason to believe that Shiloh was no longer the seat of the ark in Saul’s time (see 1 Samuel 22; 1 Chronicles 13:3-5), it is better to refer these words to Eli, and not to Ahijah, to whom the next words, “wearing an ephod,” apply. (See 1 Samuel 2:28; Judges 1:1 note.)