And Ahiah the son of Ahitub, Ichabod's brother
Ichabod was the child that Phinehas's wife bore prematurely on hearing the news of the ark being taken and of the death of her husband and father-in-law, which name she gave him on that account, and died; see ( 1 Samuel 4:19-22 ) , he, it seems, had an elder brother, called Ahitub, who died young, and this Ahiah was the son of him; for not he, but Ahitub, was Ichabod's brother:
the son of Phinehas;
so Ichabod was:
the son of Eli;
so Phinehas was:
the Lord's priest in Shiloh;
this refers not to Ahiah for he was not now priest in Shiloh, which was destroyed: and besides, he was now in the camp of Saul; but to Eli, who when living exercised the priest's office in Shiloh:
wearing an ephod;
as Ahiah now did; not such as common priests wore, but the ephod the high priest wore, which had the breastplate of judgment, the Urim and Thummim, in it, by which inquiry was made, ( 1 Samuel 14:37 ) . The meaning of all this is, that the high priest is now with Saul, and the ark also, which and the high priest might be sent for on this occasion, ( 1 Samuel 14:18 )
and the people knew not that Jonathan was gone;
or they would have gone with him, namely, the military men that were particularly with him; he and Saul were in two different parts of Gibeah, with distinct bodies of men; whether the thousand that Jonathan first had with him all continued is not certain; it seems probable they did not; it can hardly be thought he should have more with him than were with Saul; see ( 1 Samuel 14:2 ) , though from ( 1 Samuel 14:17 ) they seem now to have been together.