Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Samuel 23:6

"And it came to pass, when Abiathar the son of Ahimelech fled to David to Keilah, that he came down with an ephod in his hand." — 1 Samuel 23:6 (ASV)

With an ephod in his hand. The difficulty here with the version and commentators is that they failed to understand that inquiry of the Lord could be made in any other mode than through the Urim. (See Note above on 1 Samuel 23:2.) Saul in happier days, we know, inquired and received replies “through prophets,” for before he resorted to forbidden arts, we read how, in evident contrast to other and earlier times, the Lord did not answer him, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets (1 Samuel 28:6). The Septuagint here must have deliberately altered the Hebrew text, to escape what seemed to these translators a grave difficulty.

They render: “And it came to pass, when Abiathar the son of Ahimelech fled to David, that he came down with David to Keilah, having an ephod in his hand,” thus implying that Abiathar had come down with David to Keilah, having joined him previously. The Hebrew text is, however, definite and clear, and tells us that Abiathar first joined David when he was at Keilah. But the difficulty which puzzled the Septuagint and so many others vanishes when we remember that the inquiry of the Lord was often made through the prophet; and this was evidently done by David through Gad, a famous representative of that order, in the case of the inquiry referred to in 1 Samuel 23:2, 4 of this chapter.