1 Samuel 1

The Family of Elkanah

1 There was a certain man from Ramathaim Zophim, from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.^[a]

2 He had two wives; the name of the first [was] Hannah, and the name of the second [was] Peninnah. Now Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.

3 Now this man used to go up from his town {year by year}^[b] to worship and to sacrifice to Yahweh of hosts in Shiloh, {where}^[c] the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, [were] priests to Yahweh.

4 {On}^[d] the day Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters.

5 But to Hannah he would give {a double portion},^[e] because he loved Hannah, though Yahweh had closed her womb.

6 (Now her rival wife would provoke her severely in order to upset her because Yahweh had closed her womb.)

7 And so he used to do^[f] year after year; {whenever}^[g] she went up to the house of Yahweh, she^[h] would provoke her so that she^[i] would weep and would not eat.

8 So Elkanah her husband would say to her: "Hannah, why do you weep and why do you not eat? And {why are you heartsick}?^[j] Am I not better to you than ten sons?"

9 Then Hannah got up after eating and drinking at Shiloh. (Now Eli the priest [was] sitting on his chair by the doorpost of the temple^[k] of Yahweh.)

10 She [was] {deeply troubled},^[l] so she prayed to Yahweh and wept bitterly.

11 She {made a vow}^[m] and said: "O Yahweh of hosts, if you will look with compassion on the misery of your female servant, and will remember me, and not forget your female servant, and will give to your female servant {a male child}^[n] then I will give him to Yahweh all the days of his life, and a razor will never pass over his head."^[o]

12 {While}^[p] she continued to pray before Yahweh, Eli was observing her mouth.

13 Now Hannah had been speaking in her heart; her lips [were] moving, but her voice could not be heard, so Eli considered her [to be] drunk.

14 Then Eli said to her, "How long will you behave like someone [who is] drunk? Put away your wine!"

15 But Hannah answered and said, "No, my lord. I am a woman {deeply distressed},^[q] but I have not drunk wine [or] strong drink. [Rather], I have poured out my soul before Yahweh.

16 Do not regard your female servant as {worthless},^[r] but because of the extent of my worries and my provocation I have spoken all of this."

17 Then Eli answered and said, "Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant your request that you have asked of him."

18 And she said, "May your female slave find favor in your sight." Then the woman went on her way and ate [something], and {her face did not look sad any longer}.^[s]

The Birth of Samuel

19 Then they rose early in the morning and worshiped before Yahweh {and returned}^[t] to their house at Ramah. Then Elkanah {had sexual relations with}^[u] Hannah his wife, and Yahweh remembered her.

20 {In due time},^[v] Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son. She called his name Samuel, for [she said], "I requested him from Yahweh."

21 So the man Elkanah went up with all his household {to make the annual sacrifice}^[w] to Yahweh and [to pay] his vow.

22 But Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, "Once the boy [is] weaned, I will bring him, so that he may appear before Yahweh; and he will remain there forever."

23 So her husband Elkanah said to her, "{Do what seems right to you};^[x] stay until you wean him. Only may Yahweh fulfill his word." So the woman remained and nursed her son until she weaned him.

24 Then she brought him up with her when she had weaned him, [along] with three bulls, one ephah of flour, and a skin^[y] of wine. She brought him to the house of Yahweh at Shiloh while the boy [was still] young.

25 They slaughtered the bull, and they brought the boy to Eli.

26 She said, "Excuse me, my lord. As {you live},^[z] my lord, I [am] the woman who stood with you in this [place] to pray to Yahweh.

27 I prayed for this boy, and Yahweh has given me my request that I asked from him.

28 I in turn have lent him to Yahweh. {As long as he lives}^[aa] he [is] lent to Yahweh." Then they worshiped Yahweh there.

1 Samuel 1 Commentary

Chapter 1

In this book we have an account of Eli, and the wickedness of his sons; also of Samuel, his character and actions. Then of the advancement of Saul to be the king of Israel, and his ill behaviour, until his death made way for David's succession to the throne, who was an eminent type of Christ. David's patience, modesty, constancy, persecution by open enemies and feigned friends, are a pattern and example to the church, and to every member of it. Many things in this book encourage the faith, hope, and patience of the suffering believer. It contains also many useful cautions and awful warnings.

Elkanah and his family. (1-8) Hannah's prayer. (9-18) Samuel, Hannah presents him to the Lord. (19-28)

Verses 1-8 Elkanah kept up his attendance at God's altar, notwithstanding the unhappy differences in his family. If the devotions of a family prevail not to put an end to its divisions, yet let not the divisions put a stop to the devotions. To abate our just love to any relation for the sake of any infirmity which they cannot help, and which is their affliction, is to make God's providence quarrel with his precept, and very unkindly to add affliction to the afflicted. It is evidence of a base disposition, to delight in grieving those who are of a sorrowful spirit, and in putting those out of humour who are apt to fret and be uneasy. We ought to bear one another's burdens, not add to them. Hannah could not bear the provocation. Those who are of a fretful spirit, and are apt to lay provocations too much to heart, are enemies to themselves, and strip themselves of many comforts both of life and godliness. We ought to notice comforts, to keep us from grieving for crosses. We should look at that which is for us, as well as what is against us.

Verses 9-18 Hannah mingled tears with her prayers; she considered the mercy of our God, who knows the troubled soul. God gives us leave, in prayer, not only to ask good things in general, but to mention that special good thing we most need and desire. She spoke softly, none could hear her. Hereby she testified her belief of God's knowledge of the heart and its desires. Eli was high priest, and judge in Israel. It ill becomes us to be rash and hasty in censures of others, and to think people guilty of bad things while the matter is doubtful and unproved. Hannah did not retort the charge, and upbraid Eli with the wicked conduct of his own sons. When we are at any time unjustly censured, we have need to set a double watch before the door of our lips, that we do not return censure for censure. Hannah thought it enough to clear herself, and so must we. Eli was willing to acknowledge his mistake. Hannah went away with satisfaction of mind. She had herself by prayer committed her case to God, and Eli had prayed for her. Prayer is heart's ease to a gracious soul. Prayer will smooth the countenance; it should do so. None will long remain miserable, who use aright the privilege of going to the mercy-seat of a reconciled God in Christ Jesus.

Verses 19-28 Elkanah and his family had a journey before them, and a family of children to take with them, yet they would not move till they had worshipped God together. Prayer and provender do not hinder a journey. When men are in such haste to set out upon journeys, or to engage in business, that they have not time to worship God, they are likely to proceed without his presence and blessing. Hannah, though she felt a warm regard for the courts of God's house, begged to stay at home. God will have mercy, and not sacrifice. Those who are detained from public ordinances, by the nursing and tending of little children, may take comfort from this instance, and believe, that if they do that duty in a right spirit, God will graciously accept them therein. Hannah presented her child to the Lord with a grateful acknowledgment of his goodness in answer to prayer. Whatever we give to God, it is what we have first asked and received from him. All our gifts to him were first his gifts to us. The child Samuel early showed true piety. Little children should be taught to worship God when very young. Their parents should teach them in it, bring them to it, and put them on doing it as well as they can; God will graciously accept them, and will teach them to do better.

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "Ephrathite"
• [b]. Literally "from days to days"
• [c]. Literally "and there"
• [d]. Literally "And it happened on"
• [e]. Literally "a portion of two faces"
• [f]. So Hebrew; because of the abrupt change of subject some revocalize the verb to read "it used to be"
• [g]. Or "as often as"; literally "from enough"
• [h]. That is, Penninah
• [i]. That is, Hannah
• [j]. Literally "why [is] your heart evil"
• [k]. This is not the temple of Solomon (ca. 966 bc), but rather the tabernacle that first resided at Shiloh after the conquest of Joshua.
• [l]. Literally "bitter of soul"
• [m]. Literally "vowed a vow"
• [n]. Literally "an offspring of men"
• [o]. "A razor will never pass over his head" indicates that Hannah promised to dedicate her son to Yahweh as a Nazirite, according to the terms of Num 6:1-21
• [p]. Literally "And it happened that when"
• [q]. Literally "difficult of spirit"
• [r]. Literally "as a daughter of Belial/daughter of worthlessness"
• [s]. Literally "her faces were not for her [any] longer"
• [t]. Literally "and they returned and went"
• [u]. Literally "knew"
• [v]. Literally "At the turning of the days"
• [w]. Literally "to sacrifice the sacrifice of days"
• [x]. Literally "do what [is] good in your eyes"
• [y]. Or "a [clay] jar"
• [z]. Literally "your soul lives"
• [aa]. Literally "All the days that he lives"

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO THE FIRST BOOK OF SAMUEL

\\OTHERWISE CALLED\\ \\THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS\\

This book, in the Hebrew copies, is commonly called Samuel, or the Book of Samuel; in the Syriac version, the Book of Samuel the Prophet; and in the Arabic version, the Book of Samuel the Prophet, which is the First Book of the Kings; and the Septuagint version, the Book of the Kingdom: it has the name of Samuel, because it contains an history of his life and times; and the Jews say {a} it was written by him; and as it may well enough be thought to be, to the end of the twenty fourth chapter; and the rest might be written by Nathan and Gad, as may he gathered from 1Ch 29:29 as also the following book that bears his name; and both may be called the Books of Kings, because they give an account of the rise of the kings in Israel, and of the two first of them; though some think they were written by Jeremiah, as Abarbinel; and others ascribe them to Ezra: however, there is no doubt to be made of it that this book was written by divine inspiration, when we consider the series of its history, its connection and harmony with other parts of Scripture; the several things borrowed from it, or alluded to in the book of Psalms, particularly what is observed in Ps 113:7,8, seems to be taken out of 1Sa 2:8, and the sanction which the Lord gives to it, by referring to a fact in it, whereby he stopped the mouths of the Scribes and Pharisees cavilling at his disciples, Mt 12:3,4, compared with 1Sa 21:3-6, yea, even, as Huetius {b} observes, some Heathen writers have by their testimonies confirmed some passages in these books, which they seem to have been acquainted with, as Nicolaus of Damascus {c}, and Eupolemus {d}; it contains an history of the government of Eli, and of the birth of Samuel, and his education under him; of the succession of Samuel in it, and the resignation of it to Saul, when he was chosen king; of his administration of his office, and of things done in the time of it, both before and after his rejection, and of the persecution of David by Saul, and is concluded with his death.

{a} T. Bab. Bava Bathra, fol. 14. 2. {b} Demonstrat. Evangel. Prop. 4. p. 199. {c} Apud Joseph. Antiqu. l. 7. c. 5. sect. 2. {d} Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 30.

\\INTRODUCTION TO FIRST SAMUEL 1\\

This chapter gives an account of the parents of Samuel, of the trouble his mother met with from her rival, and comfort from her husband, 1Sa 1:1-8, of her prayer to God for a son, and of her vow to him, should one be given her, 1Sa 1:9-11 of the notice Eli took of her, and of his censure on her, which he afterwards retracted, and comforted her, 1Sa 1:12-18 of her conception and the birth of her son, the nursing and weaning of him, 1Sa 1:19-23 and of the presentation of him to the Lord, with a sacrifice, 1Sa 1:24-28.