1 Samuel 4:7

And the Philistines were afraid, for they said, God is come into the camp. And they said, Woe unto us! for there hath not been such a thing heretofore.

God is come into the camp ... Woe unto us! For there hath not been such a thing heretofore. The ark was always carried by the priests in the van (Numbers 10:33; Joshua 3:14); and, with one solitary exception, when the attack upon the Amalekites and Canaanites was made in spite of an express prohibition of Moses, it was invariably carried with them in their early wars. But when they had become settled in Canaan, and the ark was established in Shiloh, the practice of carrying it to the battlefield had been discontinued, until now that ignorance and superstitious fear revived it.