1 Samuelchapter 1
28 verses · Samuel, Nathan and Gad, by tradition · 10th century BC · History
And this man went up out of his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice unto the Lord of hosts in Shiloh. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the priests of the Lord, were there.
Introduction
Samuel, Nathan and Gad, by tradition, History, 1 Samuel Overview.
First Samuel names no writer, and tradition gives its early chapters to Samuel himself. It was kept for a nation that would one day ask why it had kings, and it opens that question inside one household. Its first hearers made the same yearly climb to the sanctuary and knew what a childless wife endured at a family table. The chapter is a quiet domestic scene told in four short movements. Listen for who speaks to whom and who misreads whom, and hold on to the vow. Read it as the first step toward a throne.
Context
- Who
- Israelites who went up to the same central sanctuary every year and knew what a childless wife endured in a household that had children in it
- What
- A childless wife prays at Shiloh for a son, vows him to the LORD, bears Samuel and gives him to the sanctuary.
- Where
- Ramathaim in the hill country of Ephraim and the sanctuary at Shiloh, about twenty miles to the north.
- When
- About 1105 BC, in the last years of the tabernacle at Shiloh, dated back from Saul's anointing about 1050 BC.
- Why
- To show that the story of Israel's kings begins with the LORD answering one woman's prayer.
Historical context
The chapter belongs to Elkanah's household, a Levite family settled in Ephraimite territory, and to Hannah, the wife who had borne no children. Eli is the priest at Shiloh and the judge of Israel in these years, and his sons Hophni and Phinehas serve at the sanctuary with him.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
Shiloh was the national sanctuary through the whole era of the judges, and this chapter shows it at its height. The tabernacle stood there, and verse 9 calls the building a temple with a doorpost, which suggests that a permanent structure had grown up around the tent. Families came up yearly for the festival. The trip was a family occasion and a market as much as a religious duty.
The occasion is that yearly sacrifice. The meal at the centre of the chapter is a fellowship offering, of which part was burned, part went to the priests, and the rest was eaten on the spot by the worshipper's household. Elkanah hands portions to Peninnah and her children and a double portion to Hannah. A family's standing is displayed at a shared table, and that is what makes the day unbearable for a wife with no child to seat.
A first hearer knew what a barren woman faced and a reader today has to be told. Children were a household's labour, its support in old age and its claim on the future, and the blame for having none fell on the wife. A first hearer also knew the law behind Hannah's vow. Numbers 30 gave a woman the standing to make a binding vow. It also gave her husband the right to annul that vow on the day he heard it, which is why Elkanah's answer at verse 23 matters. The vow itself is a Nazirite dedication for life, and the promise that no razor shall come on the boy's head repeats Numbers 6:5 and Judges 13:5. Weaning in that world ran to about three years, which is the interval between verse 23 and verse 24.
Significance
The high priest of Israel watches a woman pray and concludes that she is drunk. A first hearer met the state of the priesthood in that one exchange, before a single scandal had been named.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The answer to a nation's crisis begins with one woman weeping at a doorpost. The book that will produce Israel's kings opens with a wife who asks for a son and then gives him away.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
Rashi is the commentator the corpus carries in full on this chapter, in the Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J., under CC-BY. Radak is carried on two verses in the Sefaria Community Translation, CC0. Rashi reads the opening word as a link to the book before it. The chain he gives runs from Moses to Joshua, then to the Elders, then each judge to his successor, "until it reached Eili who gave it over to Shmuel" (Rashi on I Samuel 1:1:1). On Elkanah's going up to Shiloh he reads the verb as a habit, and gives the sense as going up "from one appointed season to another" (Rashi on I Samuel 1:3:1). He adds from the Midrash Aggadah that Elkanah changed his route each year to publicize the pilgrimage, so that others would do likewise (same ref, citing Talmud Yerushalmi Berachos 9:5). The prayer is where the chapter's weight falls, and Rashi works it line by line. On the name Hannah uses he hands on an aggadah of Rabbi Eliezer the son of Rabbi Yose Haglili (Rashi on I Samuel 1:11:1). In it she says God created two hosts, the heavenly who neither multiply nor die, and the earthly who do both, and asks to be counted with one (same ref). He also carries what the Rabbis in Maseches Berachos expounded, that until then no one had called God "[Master of] Hosts" (same ref). On Eli watching her mouth he follows Targum Yonoson, "and Eili waited until she stopped" (Rashi on I Samuel 1:12:1). On the charge of drunkenness he gives the reason in one line, that they "were not accustomed to praying silently" (Rashi on I Samuel 1:13:1). Hannah's answer he reads as a rebuke, that Eli is "not master in this matter" (Rashi on I Samuel 1:15:1). By making the charge, Rashi says, Eli showed that the Holy Spirit was resting on him no longer, and he cites Maseches Berachos 31b (same ref). Radak reads the preposition in the phrase for her praying as meaning to the Lord rather than upon Him (Radak on I Samuel 1:10:1). On Eli's question he gives the sense as "Until when will you show yourself as if you were drunk", since her lips moved and no words were heard (Radak on I Samuel 1:14:1). On the time of the birth Rashi counts the minimum of seasons as two and the minimum of days as two (Rashi on I Samuel 1:20:1). That gives six months and two days, and he cites Maseches Rosh Hashanah 11a for it (same ref). On the weaning he gives twenty-two months, with other versions reading twenty-four, as the period for a child to nurse (Rashi on I Samuel 1:22:1). On Elkanah's words at the weaning he gives the plain sense first, then a midrash in the name of Rabbi Nechemyah (Rashi on I Samuel 1:23:1). In it a heavenly voice announced daily that a righteous man named Shmuel would arise, so every woman who bore a son gave him that name (same ref). Malbim on I Samuel 1:2:1 stands as a citation, since the corpus holds no English version of it.
What the rabbis say
The corpus records forty rabbinic locators on this chapter, twenty-two of them Midrash and eighteen Talmud, each a locator without text. The man of Ramathaim and his two wives draw Aggadat Bereshit 50:1, Aggadat Bereshit 50:2, Bereshit Rabbah 38:14 and Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayetze 58. The yearly going up to Shiloh and the portions at the sacrifice draw Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Shabbat 5:6, Ein Yaakov, Shabbat 5:10, Midrash Shmuel 1:8, Aggadat Bereshit 29:1 and Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 31:4:1. Peninnah the rival, Hannah's weeping and Elkanah's question draw Bava Batra 16a:9, Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayetze 23, Eikhah Rabbah 1:22, Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayetze 64 and Midrash Tehillim 42:2. Her rising after the meal and the vow she made draw Aggadat Bereshit 41:1, Aggadat Bereshit 41:3, Berakhot 30b:15, Berakhot 31b:26, Aggadat Bereshit 53:2 and Bamidbar Rabbah 16:5. Praying in the heart, Eli's charge and his blessing draw the largest cluster of the chapter, nine locators in all. They are Jerusalem Talmud Berakhot 4:1:22, Jerusalem Talmud Taanit 4:1:6, Berakhot 31a:24, Berakhot 31a:27, Berakhot 31a:28, Tractate Kallah Rabbati 1:16, Berakhot 31b:1, Berakhot 31b:4 and Berakhot 31b:5. The birth and the naming draw Bereshit Rabbah 76:8, Aggadat Bereshit 29:2 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Rosh Hashanah 1:5. The vow kept, the weaning and the offering at Shiloh draw Introductions to Tanaitic Literature, Introductions to Tractates of the Mishnah, Nazir 9, Chagigah 6a:3, Midrash Shmuel 3:4 and Jerusalem Talmud Megillah 1:12:3. The closing verses of the chapter draw Berakhot 31b:19, Berakhot 31b:20, Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 26:7:1 and Avot DeRabbi Natan, Recension B 43:10. The rabbis teach in these places, and this site reports them as their teaching rather than as a rule of the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on I Samuel 1:1:1, 1:3:1, 1:11:1, 1:12:1, 1:13:1, 1:15:1, 1:20:1, 1:22:1 and 1:23:1, the Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J., CC-BY; Radak, Radak on I Samuel 1:10:1 and 1:14:1, the Sefaria Community Translation, CC0; Malbim, Malbim on I Samuel 1:2:1, cited only, no English version in the corpus.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Am I not better to thee than ten sons?
1 Samuel 1:1-2
Elkanah's household carries two wives, and verse 2 names the difference between them at once: “Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none”. Hannah stands in a line of barren wives that Genesis and Judges already wrote, Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel and the wife of Manoah, each opened by the Lord. Verse 5 will name the cause, and a reader of the earlier books knows what that withholding usually means.
he had two wives: Adam Clarke observes that where a man kept two wives, the peace of the home suffered, and Peninnah's taunts in verse 6 bear that out. Hannah stands with Sarah, Rebekah and Rachel, barren wives whose sons were given by the LORD for His purpose. Her womb is closed as the story opens.
1 Samuel 1:2
“He had two wives - The custom of those times permitted polygamy; but wherever there was more than one wife, we find the peace of the family greatly disturbed by it. The name of the one was Hannah - חנה Channah, which signifies fixed or settled, and the other פננה Peninnah, which signifies a jewel or pearl.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The title “the LORD of Hosts” enters Scripture in this verse, spoken of a family's yearly sacrifice at Shiloh, and 17:45 later gives it its battle sense. Hophni and Phinehas are named here as priests, so the reader meets the men whose corruption will empty this sanctuary before chapter two describes it. Shiloh stands at its height in this verse, and the book never lets it stand so high again.
1 Samuel 1:3
“Although a Levite, he could not personally offer a sacrifice--that was exclusively the office of the priests; and his piety in maintaining a regular attendance on the divine ordinances is the more worthy of notice because the character of the two priests who administered them was notoriously bad.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 1:3
“It is likely that during the unsettled times of the Judges Jdg 21:25 the attendance of Israelites at the three Festivals Exo 34:23; Deu 16:16 fell into desuetude or great irregularity, and this one feast (see the marginal reference), which may have coincided with the Feast of Pentecost or tabernacles, may have been substituted for them. The Lord of Hosts - This title of Yahweh which, with some variations, is found upward of 260 times in the Old Testament, occurs here for the first time.”
1 Samuel 1:4-6
Elkanah gives Hannah “a double portion, for he loved her”, and the gift only sharpens what love cannot fix. Peninnah is her rival, and her taunting is deliberate and yearly. The refrain that “the LORD had closed” Hannah's womb ends both verse 5 and verse 6, so the narrator names the true cause of her grief.
1 Samuel 1:4
“He gave - portions - The sacrifices which were made were probably peace-offerings, of which the blood was poured out at the foot of the altar; the fat was burnt on the fire; the breast and right shoulder were the portion of the priest, and the rest belonged to him who made the offering; on it he and his family feasted, each receiving his portion; and to these feasts God commands them to invite the Levite, the poor, the widow, and the orphan, Deu 16:11.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Albert Barnes explains that each worshipper at the feast received one portion, and Elkanah gave Hannah a double portion, enough for two. He loved her, and Jamieson, Fausset & Brown trace Peninnah's provocation in verse 6 to that love. The double portion honoured Hannah and stirred her rival.
1 Samuel 1:5
“A worthy portion - Probably as in the margin. Naturally she would have had a single portion of the sacrifice (compare 1Sa 9:23), but because of his love to her he gave her a double portion, enough for two people (compare Gen 43:34).”
The rival is Peninnah, and Adam Clarke reads her taunts as a steady effort to make Hannah fret over the children the LORD had withheld. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown trace such quarrels in a house of two wives to jealousy over the husband's love, and verse 5 has just shown that love. The taunt pointed at God's own hand.
1 Samuel 1:6
“And her adversary - That is, Peninnah. Provoked her sore - Was constantly striving to irritate and vex her, to make her fret - to make her discontented with her lot, because the Lord had denied her children.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Samuel 1:7-8
The taunting comes year after year at the house of the LORD itself, and Hannah answers it with tears and a fast. Elkanah's question, “Am I not better to you than ten sons”, is tender and still misses the point, since a husband's love cannot fill the place of a child.
1 Samuel 1:7
And as he did so ... - It should rather be “And so she did year by year, as often as she went up to the House of the Lord, so she provoked her.” Though the verb is masculine, Peninnah must be the subject, because as often as SHE went up follows. The Vulgate has “they went up.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 1:7
“Thus a Godward fast is a work of reverential awe. By its means also Hannah the wife of Elkanah making suit, barren as she had been beforetime, easily obtained from God the filling of her belly, empty of food, with a son, indeed, and a prophet.”
Tertullian · written before 220 · ON FASTING 7patristic
Elkanah asks four questions in one breath, and Matthew Henry hears in them a husband who cannot be at ease while his wife is in sorrow. Adam Clarke takes the ten sons as a round number for a large family. Hannah's grief carried her to prayer in verse 10.
1 Samuel 1:8
“Am not I better to thee than ten sons? - Ten, a certain for an uncertain number. Is not my especial affection to thee better than all the comfort thou couldst gain, even from a numerous family?”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
A vow at Shiloh, mistaken for drunkenness
1 Samuel 1:9-11
The phrase “the temple of the LORD” occurs here for the first time in Scripture, said of the sanctuary at Shiloh long before Solomon builds. Hannah's vow that “no razor shall ever come over his head” repeats the Nazirite law of Numbers 6:5 and the angel's word over Samson at Judges 13:5. Samson broke that vow, and Hannah gives it to a son not yet conceived, who keeps it.
1 Samuel 1:9
“After they had eaten ... - Rather, “after she had eaten and after she had drunk,” which is obviously right. Hannah, in the bitterness of her spirit, could not enjoy her feast, and so, after eating and drinking a little, she arose and went to the temple, leaving her husband and Peninnah and her children at table, where she still found them on her return 1Sa 1:18. Upon a seat ... - Rather, “upon the throne,” the pontifical chair of state 1Sa 4:13, which was probably set at the gate leading into the inner court of the tabernacle.”
John Gill traces Hannah's bitterness to her barren years and the taunts of verse 6, and he calls her prayer strong crying and tears. Matthew Henry sets it beside Luke 22, where the Lord in agony prayed more earnestly. Her weeping became her prayer.
1 Samuel 1:10
“Our blessed Saviour himself, being in an agony, prayed more earnestly, Luke xxii. (2.) She mingled tears with her prayers. It was not a dry prayer: she wept sore.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Adam Clarke notes that a Levite served the LORD from twenty-five to fifty, and Hannah vows her son to the LORD for all the days of his life. The razor clause marks him as a Nazirite, like Samson. Albert Barnes sets her vow among the vows of the Judges.
1 Samuel 1:11
“I will give him unto the Lord - Samuel, as a descendant of the house of Levi, was the Lord’s property from twenty-five years of age till fifty; but the vow here implies that he should be consecrated to the Lord from his infancy to his death, and that he should not only act as a Levite, but as a Nazarite, on whose head no razor should pass.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 1:11
“Note further, It is very proper, when we are in pursuit of any mercy, to bind our own souls with a bond, that, if God give it us, we will devote it to his honour and cheerfully use it in his service. Not that hereby we can pretend to merit the gift, but thus we are qualified for it and for the comfort of it. In hope of mercy, let us promise duty.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Samuel 1:12-14
Eli watches her lips move without sound and reads drunkenness into prayer pushed past speech. The priest at Shiloh's own altar cannot tell devotion from wine, an early sign of the failing discernment the coming chapters show in Eli's house. His rebuke, “How long will you be drunk”, falls on the one worshipper in the chapter who is seeking the LORD.
1 Samuel 1:12
“This mistaken impression was immediately removed, and, in the words, "God grant," or rather, "will grant," was followed by an invocation which, as Hannah regarded it in the light of a prophecy pointing to the accomplishment of her earnest desire, dispelled her sadness, and filled her with confident hope [1Sa 1:18].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Adam Clarke explains that her lips formed the words her heart was saying, though no sound came. Bede and Cyprian both set this silent prayer beside the Lord's word at Matthew 6:6 to pray to the Father in secret. Eli read the silence as wine.
1 Samuel 1:13
“Spake in her heart; only her lips moved - She prayed; her whole heart was engaged: and though she spake not with an audible voice, yet her lips formed themselves according to the pronunciation of the words which her heart uttered.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 1:13
“This Hannah does in the first book of Kings [Samuel], portraying a type of the church, [she] prays to God not with a noisy petition but silently and modestly within the very recesses of her heart. She spoke with a hidden prayer but with manifest faith. She did not speak with the voice but with the heart, because she knew that so the Lord hears, and she effectually obtained what she sought, because she asked with faith.”
Cyprian · written before 258 · Treatise IV. On the Lord's Prayer 5patristic
Eli speaks to Hannah as to a drunk woman at the temple of the LORD, and John Chrysostom notes that she was taunted by her rival at home and rebuked by the priest here. Matthew Henry admires her restraint, since Eli's own sons were the wicked men of chapter 2. Her reply is gentle.
1 Samuel 1:14
“Hannah's humble vindication of herself from this crime with which she was charged. She bore it admirably well. She did not retort the charge and upbraid him with the debauchery of his own sons, did not bid him look at home and restrain them, did not tell him how ill it became one in his place thus to abuse a poor sorrowful worshipper at the throne of grace.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Samuel 1:15-16
Hannah corrects the priest without anger, calling herself “a woman oppressed in spirit” who has “poured out my soul before the LORD”. She asks Eli not to take her “for a wicked woman”, and the same word returns at 2:12, where Eli's own sons are called wicked men. The reader is left to notice the distance.
1 Samuel 1:15
“I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink - Neither wine nor inebriating drink has been poured out unto me; but I have poured out my soul unto the Lord. There is a great deal of delicacy and point in this vindication.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 1:15
“The special cause of Hannah's sorrow arose from the institution of polygamy, which, although it was tolerated under the old Law, is always exhibited to us in practical action as a most fruitful source of sorrow and sin. In no one recorded instance in Holy Scripture is it set forth as admirable. In most cases the proofs of its evil effects lie open to the sun.”
Behind wicked woman stands the phrase daughter of Belial, which John Gill glosses as a lawless and abandoned woman, the kind who would come drunk into the sanctuary. Adam Clarke thinks such women did gather at the tabernacle, as 2:22 shows of Eli's sons. Hannah names her anguish instead.
1 Samuel 1:16
“Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial,.... A yokeless, a lawless, impudent, and abandoned creature; one of the most wicked, vilest, and most profligate wretches; as she must be to come drunk into the sanctuary of God; see 1Sa 25:17. Drunkenness in man is au abominable crime, but much more in a woman.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 1:16
“Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial - אל תתן את אמתך לפני בת בליעל al titten eth amathecha liphney bath Beliyael; ‘Put not thy handmaiden before the faces of a daughter of Belial.” “If I am a drunkard, and strive by the most execrable hypocrisy (praying in the house of God) to cover my iniquity, then I am the chief of the daughters of Belial.” Or, “Give not thy handmaid (to reproach) before the faces of the daughters of Belial.””
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Samuel 1:17-18
Eli blesses her, “may the God of Israel grant the petition you have asked of Him”, before he knows what the petition was, and Hannah receives it as answered before any child comes. Her face “was no longer downcast” because she believed a word spoken over her while her circumstances stood unchanged. The older writers read this verse as the model of a faith that rests before it sees.
1 Samuel 1:17
“Grant thee thy petition - He was satisfied he had formed a wrong judgment, and by it had added to the distress of one already sufficiently distressed. The fact that Eli supposed her to be drunken, and the other of the conduct of Eli’s sons already mentioned, prove that religion was at this time at a very low ebb in Shiloh; for it seems drunken women did come to the place, and lewd women were to be found there.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Hannah went back to the family meal at Shiloh and ate, though she had no son yet. Albert Barnes calls it the composing power of prayer, and Jamieson, Fausset & Brown say she heard Eli's words in verse 17 as a promise from the God of Israel. Her face changed before her womb did.
1 Samuel 1:18
“A beautiful example of the composing influence of prayer. Hannah had cast her burden upon the Lord, and so her own spirit was relieved of its load. She now returned to the family feast, and ate her portion with a cheerful heart. Act 2:46-47. The word “sad” is not in the Hebrew text, but it fairly supplies the meaning intended.”
Samuel weaned and lent to Jehovah
1 Samuel 1:19-20
the Lord remembered her: The verse answers the vow in four words, “the LORD remembered her”, and the boy's name ties him to the request that produced him: “Because I have asked for him from the LORD”. The root behind asked is the root of Saul's own name, a play the narrator lets stand without comment. Hannah names her son for a prayer answered, unusual in a book full of genealogies.
1 Samuel 1:19
“For the peace-offerings typified Christ's mediation, as well as the sin-offerings: since by this not only atonement is made for sin, but an answer to our prayers obtained. Give him - That is, consecrate him to God's service in his temple. No razor - That is, he shall be a perpetual Nazarite.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Hannah names her son for her asking. Adam Clarke hears in Samuel a contraction of the words asked of God, and Albert Barnes reads it as heard of God, the root that stands in Ishmael and Elishama. Either way the name keeps the answered prayer before mother and son.
1 Samuel 1:20
“Called his name Samuel - As she gave this name to her son because she had asked him of the Lord, the word שמואל Shemuel must be here considerably contracted; if it express this sentiment, the component parts of it are the following: שאול מאל shaul meEl, “asked of God.” This name would put both the mother and the son in continual remembrance of the Divine interposition at his birth. See on 1Sa 1:28 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Samuel 1:21-23
Hannah stays home until the boy is weaned, an interval ancient nursing measured in years. Elkanah's answer, “Only may the LORD confirm His word”, sets his headship under what Hannah has already promised. Numbers 30 lets a husband cancel his wife's vow on the day he hears it, and Elkanah confirms it instead, so the vow stands unbroken.
1 Samuel 1:21
“The man Elkanah and all his house - He and the whole of his family, Hannah and her child excepted, who purposed not to go up to Shiloh till her son was old enough to be employed in the Divine service. And his vow - Probably he had also made some vow to the Lord on the occasion of his wife’s prayer and vow; in which, from his love to her. he could not be less interested than herself.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 1:21
“Note, Those who are stedfastly resolved to pay their vows may yet see good cause to defer the payment of them. Every thing is beautiful in its season. No animal was accepted in sacrifice till it had been for some time under the dam, Lev. xxii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Exodus 23:17 required the men to appear at the feasts, and Jamieson, Fausset & Brown note that Hannah had gone up by choice. She stays home until the weaning, which Albert Barnes places at two or three years among Hebrew mothers. Then the boy would stay for good.
1 Samuel 1:22
“Until the child be weaned - Hebrew mothers, as elsewhere in the East, usually suckled their children until the age of two complete years, sometimes until the age of three.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 1:22
“But Hannah went not up--Men only were obliged to attend the solemn feasts (Ex 23:17). But Hannah, like other pious women, was in the habit of going, only she deemed it more prudent and becoming to defer her next journey till her son's age would enable her to fulfill her vow.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Elkanah leaves the timing to Hannah. His one request is that the LORD confirm His word, which Adam Clarke reads as a prayer that God keep the child and make him a blessing to Israel. Matthew Henry holds that the boy came to the tabernacle at about three, and he records others who say eight or ten.
1 Samuel 1:23
“The solemn entering of this child into the service of the sanctuary. We may take it for granted that he was presented to the Lord at forty days old, as all the first-born were ( Luke ii. 22, 23 ): but this is not mentioned, because there was nothing in it singular; but now that he was weaned he was presented, not to be redeemed.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Samuel 1:24-25
A three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour and a skin of wine make the offering generous beyond a poor family's duty, and the text adds that “the boy was still young”. They slaughter the bull and bring the boy to Eli in one sentence, the sacrifice and the surrender told as one act. Hannah gives away in a sentence what she prayed years for.
1 Samuel 1:24
“With three bullocks - The Septuagint, the Syriac, and the Arabic, read, a bullock of three years old; and this is probably correct, because we read, 1Sa 1:25, that they slew את הפר eth happar, The bullock. We hear of no more, and we know that a bullock or heifer of three years old was ordinarily used, see Gen 15:9. One ephah of flour - Seven gallons and a half. A bottle of wine - נבל יין nebel yayin, a skin full of wine.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 1:24
“Flour - For the meal-offerings belonging to the principal sacrifices, which to each bullock were three tenth-deals, or three tenth parts of an ephah, and so nine parts of the ephah were spent, and the tenth part was given to the priest.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Verse 24 had Hannah alone take the boy to the house of the LORD, and Gregory the Dialogist marks that both parents now slaughter the bull and bring him to Eli. The sacrifice comes first. Matthew Henry notes that Elkanah worshiped whenever he sacrificed.
1 Samuel 1:26-28
Hannah names herself to Eli as the woman he took for drunk. Her words “I prayed for this boy” answer the vow of verse 11, and “For as long as he lives, he is dedicated to the LORD” makes the gift permanent. The chapter that opened with a barren woman closes with a boy at Shiloh, and the next chapter is her song about it.
1 Samuel 1:26
“As thy soul liveth - This oath is unique to the Books of Samuel, in which it occurs six times, and to the Books of Kings, in which however, it is found only once. See the note to 1Sa 1:11.”
Hannah now tells Eli the petition she had asked of the LORD, and John Gill thinks Eli gave his blessing in verse 17 without knowing it. The boy with her is the answer. Matthew Henry notes that the son she asked for at Shiloh is given back at Shiloh.
1 Samuel 1:27
“For this child I prayed,.... Which she now had in her hand, and was presenting to Eli: and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him; and which he also desired might be granted her, or foretold that it would be, 1Sa 1:17 though perhaps he knew not then particularly what it was she asked; nor did she acquaint him with it at parting, as she now did, having obtained of the Lord what she was so solicitous for, and now makes mention of with thankfulness.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 1:27
“Such must our covenant with God be, a marriage-covenant; as long as live we must be his, and never forsake him. Lastly, The child Samuel did his part beyond what could have been expected from one of his years; for of him that seems to be spoken, He worshipped the Lord there, that is he said his prayers.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The word rendered dedicate comes from the same root as asked in verse 27, and Adam Clarke and Matthew Henry both hear Hannah echoing her vow and the boy's name. The one she asked for she now gives. John Gill notes that the gift holds for his whole life.
1 Samuel 1:28
“Therefore also I have lent him to the Lord - There is here a continual reference to her vow, and to the words which she used in making that vow. The word Samuel, as we have already seen, is a contraction of the words שאול מאל Shaul meEl, that is, asked or lent of God; for his mother said, 1Sa 1:27, The Lord hath given me my petition, which שאלתי Shaalti, I Asked of him.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 1:28
“Whatever we give to God, may upon this account be said to be lent to him, that tho' we may not recall it, yet he will certainly repay it, to our unspeakable advantage. He worshipped - Not Eli, but young Samuel, who is spoken of in this and the foregoing verse, and who was capable of worshipping God in some sort, at least with external adoration.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
How this psalm is built
The form: Narrative, the opening scene of the book, told as a household story at a yearly festival, as grouping classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The narrator's own reason, said twice | The clause that the LORD had closed her womb ends verse 5 and stands again in verse 6. Peninnah provokes and Elkanah comforts, and the narrator interrupts both to name the cause himself. Gill and Barnes both read the repetition as the writer refusing to let the reader blame the rival wife for the thing only God had done.John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, on 1 Samuel 1:5. | 1 Samuel 1:5, 1 Samuel 1:6 |
| The name that is the prayer | Samuel is named at verse 20 with the reason given in the same breath, because she had asked him of the LORD. The verb behind asked is shaal, Strong's h7592, and this site's word ladder for the book records that the same root stands behind the name Saul. The two men the book turns on are both called by the word for asking.This site's published word ladder for 1 Samuel, src/components/book/dossier-content/1-samuel.ts, the wordLadder entry for h7592, copied from the lexicon_entries row. | 1 Samuel 1:20, 1 Samuel 1:27, 1 Samuel 1:28 |
| The vow answered in its own words | The vow at verse 11 asks for a man child and promises to give him to the LORD all the days of his life. Verse 27 answers it clause by clause, for this child I prayed, and verse 28 closes it, as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the LORD. The chapter shuts on the sentence it opened its petition with.W. G. Blaikie, The First Book of Samuel, Expositor's Bible, 1887, on 1 Samuel 1:26 to 28. | 1 Samuel 1:11, 1 Samuel 1:27, 1 Samuel 1:28 |
| The title spoken first at a family altar | The title LORD of hosts enters Scripture at verse 3, at Shiloh, in a household bringing its yearly sacrifice. Hannah then uses it in her vow at verse 11, which makes her the first person in the Bible recorded as praying to God by that name. The battle sense of the title arrives much later in this same book, at 17:45.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on 1 Samuel 1:3. | 1 Samuel 1:3, 1 Samuel 1:11 |
What the chapter is built on
11 more paragraphs on the patterns
Hannah stands in a line the earlier books had already drawn. Sarah at Genesis 11:30, Rebekah at Genesis 25:21, Rachel at Genesis 29:31 and the wife of Manoah at Judges 13:2 are all barren wives whose sons carry the story forward. A reader coming to this chapter from Genesis and Judges knows what the closed womb usually means in this book's grammar.
Matthew Henry reads the pattern as deliberate, that God often makes the beginning of a deliverance out of the weakest material available.
The New Testament's use
This chapter is not quoted in the New Testament. The song in the chapter that follows it is the passage the later writers work from, and the likeness between Hannah's song and the Magnificat at Luke 1:46 to 55 belongs there rather than here.
One link does run from this chapter forward. Hebrews 11 lists the faith of those who obtained promises, and the older commentators have read Hannah's rest at verse 18 in that company, though the letter does not name her. That reading is theirs and the text does not make the claim.
The reading the chapter has drawn argument over
The temple of verse 9 has been read two ways, and the difference matters for what stood at Shiloh.
Keil and Delitzsch read the word as evidence that a fixed structure had grown up around the tent, since a doorpost belongs to a building rather than to a tent. W. G. Blaikie takes the same view and treats the permanence of the place as part of what makes its later fall so heavy.
Adam Clarke reads the word in its wider sense of a palace or a dwelling, and holds that it can cover the tabernacle itself without implying stone. The text gives the doorpost and gives no dimensions, so both readings stand on the same verse.
The thing the chapter states before its time
Verse 11 asks for a man child and promises him to the LORD for all the days of his life. The vow is made by a woman with no child and no prospect of one, and it commits a son she does not have to an office she cannot appoint him to. The chapter records the vow and lets the rest of the book answer it.
Keep studying
Studies7
Words12
Trails1
Subjects1
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel, 1875, introduction; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on 1 Samuel 1:1 to 8 and This site's published book grouping, src/lib/bible/book-sections.ts, which files 1 Samuel under the history group, and src/components/book/guides/1-samuel/Book1SamuelGuide.tsx, which opens act I, Samuel Rises, at this chapter.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Bede, Commentary on Samuel; Cyprian, Treatise IV. On the Lord's Prayer 5; Gregory the Dialogist, Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 1, Chapter 1; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, HOMILIES ON HANNAH 2; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and W. G. Blaikie, The First Book of Samuel (Expositor's Bible).