1 Samuel 14:18 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

That the priest may put on the ephod, and may inquire of the Lord before the ark what the occasion of this tumult among our enemies is, and what we shall do. With the children of Israel, to wit, in the camp, whither sometimes it was brought; as 1 Samuel 4:5; and now the rather, partly because it was now in an unsettled condition, and without the tabernacle, and therefore easily removed from place to place; and partly because Saul thought to compensate Samuel's absence with the presence of the ark.