Evidently the Levite referred to Shiloh, where the ark and the tabernacle were located. Shiloh was in Ephraim, perhaps quite near the home of the Levite, and thither he wished to go perhaps to present a thank offering to the Lord for restoring his wife to him, or to present a sin offering for her or for both of them, or even to perform his regular Levitical offices.

The LXX gives the phrase “to the house of the Lord” as “to my house.” In support of this reading is the clear implication of the context which indicates that the Levite was on his way home. On the other hand, both objectives might easily have been in the Levite’s mind.