1 Samuel 2:18

Ministered. Not in the sense of menial service, but of sacred duties connected with the work of the Levites about the sanctuary. The Hebrew word thus translated includes both kinds of “service.”

A linen ephod. Here, a garment used by the inferior priests and Levites, and, at times, even by eminent persons among the people. For example, David danced before the Lord wearing a linen ephod (2 Sam. 6:14). This is not to be confused with the high priest’s ephod of “gold, of blue, and of purple, of scarlet, and fine twined linen” on which was fastened the breastplate with its 12 stones and the Urim and the Thummim, by which inquiries were made of God (see on Ex. 28:6; cf. Judges 8:27). If the simpler linen ephod was of the same pattern as that of the high priest, as seems probable, it was a short, sleeveless garment consisting of front and back panels joined at the shoulders and drawn in at the waist with a girdle (see on Judges 8:27).