1 Samuel 2:20

20 And Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, saying, “May the LORD give you children by this woman in place of the one she dedicated to the LORD. ^[a]” Then they would go home.

1 Samuel 2:20 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 2:20

And Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife
Not only the first time they brought Samuel to him, and left him with him; but every year they came to worship, as the Jewish commentators mostly interpret it:

and said, the Lord give thee seed of this woman;
children by her, year after year:

for the loan which is lent to the Lord;
instead of Samuel, who was asked of the Lord and given to him again; and as they were thereby in some measure deprived of him, and could not always enjoy him, and be delighted with him, Eli prayed for them, and gave them his benediction as a priest, that they might be favoured with other children, who might be of delight and service to them when in old age:

and they went unto their own home;
at Ramah, as in ( 1 Samuel 2:11 ) or to his place ^F18, Elkanah's; hence Kimchi concludes that Hannah was of another city originally; but the Targum is,

``to their place;''

and indeed, what was now the place or home of the one, was of the other.

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FOOTNOTES:

F18 (wmwqml) "in locum suum", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Drusius

1 Samuel 2:20 In-Context

18 Now Samuel was ministering before the LORD—a boy wearing a linen ephod.

19 Each year his mother would make him a little robe and bring it to him when she went with her husband to offer the annual sacrifice.

20 And Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, saying, “May the LORD give you children by this woman in place of the one she dedicated to the LORD. ” Then they would go home.

21 So the LORD attended to Hannah, and she conceived and gave birth to three sons and two daughters. Meanwhile, the boy Samuel grew up in the presence of the LORD.

22 Now Eli was very old, and he heard about everything his sons were doing to all Israel and how they were sleeping with the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.

Footnotes

• [a]. DSS; MT in place of the one requested from the LORD