What does 1 Samuel 7:1 mean?

The ark of the Lord was back in Israel. The Israelites had done nothing to rescue the ark, but God afflicted the Philistines with such suffering during the seven months they held onto it that they resolved to send it back. Their hope was that God would ease His hand against them (1 Samuel 6).

Although the Israelites of Beth-shemesh who first discovered the ark rejoiced to see it returned (1 Samuel 6:13), the people of Israel were still not being faithful to the Lord. In offering a sacrifice to the Lord before they ark, they did not follow the commands of the Law about how to treat the place where God's presence visited them on the earth (1 Samuel 6:14–15, 19; Exodus 25:10–22; Leviticus 16). The Lord killed seventy men of the town for this sin (1 Samuel 6:19–21).

As was the case with each Philistine town the ark arrived at (1 Samuel 5:6–12), the people of Beth-shemesh did not want it near them. They sent messengers to the people of Kiriath-jearim to come and take it from them (1 Samuel 6:21). The location of Kiriath-jearim is disputed. It is thought to have been about seven miles from Beth-shemesh and perhaps only about a few miles west of Gibeon and Jerusalem. Either the city was situated on a hill or had a prominent hill outside of town.

The ark is brought by the men of the city to the house of a man named Abinadab. He and his son Eleazar may have been directly descended from Aaron, the first priest of Israel who, along with his descendants, was chosen to be high priest (Exodus 29:29–30; 40:12–15; Numbers 3:5–10). The context of this verse hints that they were a Levite family, and might have been why the ark was sent to them for safe keeping. Eleazar was consecrated—set apart and dedicated—with the specific job of keeping watch over and protecting the ark while it remained in the house of his father. That implies that he was a priest, though Scripture does not say this for certain.