1 Samuel 2:20

20 And Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, and say, "The Lord give you descendants from this woman for the loan that was given to the Lord." Then they would go to their own 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 But Samuel ministered before the Lord, even as a child, wearing a linen ephod.

19 Moreover his mother used to make him a little robe, and bring it to him year by year when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.

20 And Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, and say, "The Lord give you descendants from this woman for the loan that was given to the Lord." Then they would go to their own home.

21 And the Lord visited Hannah, so that she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters. Meanwhile the child Samuel grew before the Lord.

22 Now Eli was very old; and he heard everything his sons did to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who assembled at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.