1 Samuel 2:18-21

Samuel before the LORD as a Boy

18 Now ¹Samuel was ministering before the LORD, as a boy ²wearing a linen ephod.

19 And his mother would make him a little ³robe and bring it to him from year to year when she would come up with her husband to offer ⁴the yearly sacrifice.

20 Then Eli would ⁵bless Elkanah and his wife and say, "May the LORD give you children from this woman in place of the one she ⁶dedicated * to the LORD." And they went to their own home.

21 ⁷The LORD visited Hannah; and she conceived and gave birth to three sons and two daughters. And ⁸the boy Samuel grew before the LORD.

1 Samuel 2:18-21 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO FIRST SAMUEL 2

In this chapter the song of Hannah is recorded, 1Sa 2:1-10, and an account is given of the return of Elkanah and Hannah to their own home, and of the care she took yearly to provide a coat for Samuel, and of her being blessed with many other children, and of the growth and ministry of Samuel before the Lord, 1Sa 2:11,18-21,26, and of the wickedness of the sons of Eli, 1Sa 2:12-17, and of Eli's too gentle treatment of them when he reproved them for it, 1Sa 2:22-25 and of a sharp message sent him from the Lord on that account, threatening destruction to his house, of which the death of his two sons would be a sign, 1Sa 2:27-36.

Cross References

• 1. 1 Samuel 2:11; 1 Samuel 3:1
• 2. 1 Samuel 2:28; 1 Samuel 22:18; 2 Samuel 6:14; 1 Chronicles 15:27
• 3. Exodus 28:31
• 4. 1 Samuel 1:3, 21
• 5. Luke 2:34
• 6. 1 Sam 1:11, 27, 28
• 7. Genesis 21:1
• 8. Judges 13:24; 1 Samuel 2:26; 1 Samuel 3:19-21; Luke 1:80; Luke 2:40

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit "girded with"
• [b]. Lit "seed"
• [c]. Lit "the one asked for which was lent"
• [d]. Lit "place"