And it came to pass, while the ark abode in Kirjath-je'arim, that the time was long; for it was twenty years: and all the house of Israel lamented after the LORD.
The ark abode ... twenty years. It appears in the subsequent history that a much longer period elapsed before its final removal from Kirjath-jearim, (2 Samuel 6:1-23; 1 Chronicles 13:1.) But that length of time had passed when the Israelites began to revive from their sad state of religious decline. The capture of the ark had produced a general indifference either to its loss or its recovery.
All the house of Israel lamented after the Lord. They were then brought, doubtless by the influence of Samuel's exhortations, to renounce idolatry, and returned to the national worship of the true God.