1 Samuel 1: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Elkanah has two wives, Peninnah, who has children, and Hannah, who has none, and each year he takes his family to worship and sacrifice at Shiloh. Hannah, taunted by Peninnah and grieving, prays at the LORD's house and vows that if she is given a son she will give him to the LORD for his whole life and never cut his hair. Eli the priest first thinks she is drunk, then sends her away with a blessing. Hannah gives birth to Samuel, and after he is weaned she brings him to Shiloh with a sacrifice and hands him over to the LORD.

Claim by Claim

1. 1:1
   • There was a certain man from Ramathaim-zophim in the hill country of Ephraim.
   • The man's name was Elkanah.
   • Elkanah was the son of Jeroham.
   • Jeroham was the son of Elihu.
   • Elihu was the son of Tohu.
   • Tohu was the son of Zuph.
   • Elkanah was an Ephrathite.
2. 1:2
   • Elkanah had two wives.
   • The name of the one wife was Hannah.
   • The name of the second wife was Peninnah.
   • Peninnah had children.
   • Hannah had no children.
3. 1:3
   • That man went up from his city year by year to worship and to sacrifice to the LORD of hosts at Shiloh.
   • The two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there.
   • Hophni and Phinehas were priests to the LORD.
4. 1:4
   • The day came when Elkanah offered his sacrifice.
   • Elkanah gave portions to Peninnah his wife.
   • Elkanah gave portions to all Peninnah's sons and daughters.
5. 1:5
   • To Hannah Elkanah gave a portion that the text describes ambiguously, as either a single special portion or a double one.
   • Elkanah loved Hannah.
   • The LORD had shut up Hannah's womb.
6. 1:6
   • Hannah's rival wife provoked her severely.
   • The rival provoked her in order to make her fret.
   • The LORD had shut up Hannah's womb.
7. 1:7
   • This happened year after year.
   • Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the LORD, her rival provoked her.
   • Hannah wept.
   • Hannah did not eat.
8. 1:8
   • Elkanah her husband spoke to Hannah.
   • Elkanah asked Hannah why she wept.
   • Elkanah asked Hannah why she did not eat.
   • Elkanah asked Hannah why her heart was grieved.
   • Elkanah asked whether he was not better to her than ten sons.
9. 1:9
   • Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh and after they had drunk.
   • Eli the priest was sitting on a seat by the doorpost of the temple of the LORD.
10. 1:10
    • Hannah was bitter of soul.
    • Hannah prayed to the LORD.
    • Hannah wept bitterly.
11. 1:11
    • Hannah vowed a vow.
    • Hannah addressed the LORD of hosts.
    • Hannah asked that the LORD would indeed look on the affliction of his handmaid.
    • Hannah asked that the LORD would remember her.
    • Hannah asked that the LORD would not forget his handmaid.
    • Hannah asked that the LORD would give his handmaid a male child.
    • Hannah vowed that if so, she would give the child to the LORD all the days of his life.
    • Hannah vowed that no razor would come upon the child's head.
12. 1:12
    • Hannah continued praying before the LORD.
    • Eli watched her mouth.
13. 1:13
    • Hannah spoke in her heart.
    • Only Hannah's lips moved.
    • Hannah's voice was not heard.
    • Eli thought Hannah was drunk.
14. 1:14
    • Eli said to Hannah, asking how long she would be drunk.
    • Eli told Hannah to put away her wine from her.
15. 1:15
    • Hannah answered Eli.
    • Hannah said, No, my lord.
    • Hannah said she was a woman of a hard, sorrowful spirit.
    • Hannah said she had drunk neither wine nor strong drink.
    • Hannah said she had poured out her soul before the LORD.
16. 1:16
    • Hannah told Eli not to regard his handmaid as a worthless woman.
    • Hannah said she had spoken until now out of the abundance of her complaint and grief.
17. 1:17
    • Eli answered Hannah.
    • Eli told Hannah to go in peace.
    • Eli asked that the God of Israel grant her the petition she had asked of him.
18. 1:18
    • Hannah said, let your handmaid find grace in your sight.
    • The woman went her way.
    • Hannah ate.
    • Hannah's face was no longer sad.
19. 1:19
    • They rose up early in the morning.
    • They worshipped before the LORD.
    • They returned and came to their house at Ramah.
    • Elkanah knew Hannah his wife.
    • The LORD remembered Hannah.
20. 1:20
    • In the course of time Hannah conceived.
    • Hannah bore a son.
    • Hannah called his name Samuel.
    • Hannah said she had asked him of the LORD.
21. 1:21
    • The man Elkanah went up, with all his house.
    • They went up to offer to the LORD the yearly sacrifice.
    • They went up to offer his vow.
22. 1:22
    • Hannah did not go up.
    • Hannah said to her husband that she would wait until the child was weaned.
    • Hannah said she would then bring the child.
    • Hannah said the child would appear before the LORD.
    • Hannah said the child would remain there for ever.
23. 1:23
    • Elkanah her husband spoke to Hannah.
    • Elkanah told Hannah to do what seemed good to her.
    • Elkanah told Hannah to stay until she had weaned the child.
    • Elkanah said only that the LORD establish his word.
    • The woman stayed.
    • Hannah nursed her son until she weaned him.
24. 1:24
    • When Hannah had weaned the child, she took him up with her.
    • She took three bulls.
    • She took one ephah of flour.
    • She took a skin of wine.
    • She brought the child to the house of the LORD at Shiloh.
    • The child was young.
25. 1:25
    • They slaughtered the bull.
    • They brought the child to Eli.
26. 1:26
    • Hannah said, Oh my lord.
    • Hannah swore by the life of Eli's soul.
    • Hannah said she was the woman who had stood there beside Eli praying to the LORD.
27. 1:27
    • Hannah said she had prayed for this child.
    • Hannah said the LORD had given her the petition she asked of him.
28. 1:28
    • Hannah said she had therefore given the child over to the LORD.
    • Hannah said the child was given over to the LORD for as long as he lives.
    • He worshipped the LORD there.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

1:1

Ramathaim-zophim is probably the same town called Ramah later in the chapter; it lay in the hills north of Jerusalem in territory belonging to the tribe of Ephraim. The word the King James spells "Ephrathite" is ambiguous in Hebrew: it can mean a man of the Ephraim region, which is how the rendering takes it, or a man of Ephrath, the old name for the area around Bethlehem. A separate family record in 1 Chronicles lists this same line of ancestors as Levites, a clan set apart for sanctuary duty, who lived among the Ephraimites.

1:2

A man taking a second wife when the first bore no children was a recognized, if unhappy, arrangement in this society. Children, especially sons, were a household's labor force, its inheritance line, and its only support in old age, so a childless woman had no standing and no security; that is the weight behind the flat statement "Hannah had none."

1:3

Where the King James prints LORD in capitals it stands for the personal name of Israel's God, four Hebrew consonants that later Jewish practice did not pronounce aloud. Shiloh was the town, about twenty miles north of Jerusalem, that housed the national shrine and the ark in the centuries before the Jerusalem temple existed; "went up" is the standard phrase for traveling to it, partly because it sat in high country. Ordinary Israelites made this journey once a year for a festival, not weekly. "The LORD of Hosts" is a title for God as commander of the armies of heaven.

1:4

Most sacrifices were not burned whole. The animal was killed at the shrine, a portion went to God and to the priests, and the rest was cooked and eaten on the spot by the family who brought it. Handing out the shares was the head of the household carving up a festival dinner.

1:5

The Hebrew phrase behind "a worthy portion" is one of the most difficult in the book and the ancient translations disagree. It may mean a double share, as the rendering has it, or a single choice share, or even "only one portion, although he loved her." The picture of Elkanah's favoritism holds either way.

1:6

"Her adversary" translates a Hebrew word used specifically for the other wife in a shared marriage, a rival, not an enemy in general. The taunting happens at the annual feast because that is where the two households' shares of meat were counted out in public, Peninnah's for a row of children and Hannah's for herself alone.

1:8

Ten is a round number meaning a full and enviable set of sons, not a count. Elkanah is measuring himself against everything sons were supposed to provide a woman: status, protection, and care in old age.

1:9

"Temple" here does not mean the Jerusalem temple, which was not built for another century. The Hebrew word means a large or permanent building, and it indicates that the shrine at Shiloh, though it housed the old portable tent and its ark, had by now acquired a fixed structure with doorposts and a seat for the presiding priest.

1:11

A vow was a conditional promise: if God acts, the person pays. Never cutting the hair marked a person as a Nazirite, someone set apart to God by a special vow described in Numbers 6, which also forbade wine and contact with corpses. Hannah is promising away in advance the very child she is asking for. She calls herself "your servant" throughout as a set formula of humility when addressing a superior, not as a description of her job.

1:13

Prayer in this world was normally said aloud, so a woman whose lips moved with no sound was doing something odd. Combined with a festival where wine was drunk freely, that is why Eli reaches for the obvious explanation.

1:14

The yearly festival centered on a large meal with wine, so drunkenness at the shrine was a real and familiar problem, and that is the first explanation Eli reaches for.

1:15

"Strong drink" renders a Hebrew word for fermented drink other than grape wine, beer made from barley, or liquor from dates or honey. Hannah is denying she has touched anything intoxicating at all.

1:16

The King James "daughter of Belial" is a Hebrew idiom. Belial is not a name here but a word meaning worthlessness or ruin, and "son" or "daughter of" it is a standard way of saying a good-for-nothing or a scoundrel.

1:17

"Go in peace" was the ordinary formula for dismissing someone, but the second half of Eli's answer turns it into a priestly blessing. Hannah's change of mood in the next verse follows from having been believed, and from a priest's word backing her request.

1:18

"Let thine handmaid find grace in thy sight" is a set polite formula meaning roughly "I hope you think well of me." It is the same phrasing used when approaching a king or a patron.

1:19

"The LORD remembered her" does not mean he had forgotten. In Hebrew, remembering someone means turning attention to them and acting on their behalf; it describes a deed, not a state of mind.

1:20

The explanation is a play on sound rather than a strict etymology. The Hebrew verb for "asked" is sha'al, which echoes through the name Samuel; the name itself most likely means "his name is God" or "God has heard." The same verb reappears at the end of the chapter when Hannah hands the boy over.

1:21

Elkanah has apparently made a vow of his own, though the chapter never says what it was. Vows were often promised at one festival and paid off at the next with a sacrifice.

1:22

Children in this world were nursed far longer than is usual now, commonly until about three years old. Hannah is proposing to keep the boy at home for those years and then surrender him permanently. "For good" translates a phrase meaning for the whole of his life, not for eternity.

1:23

It is not clear whose word Elkanah wants confirmed. The standard Hebrew text says "his word," meaning God's; some ancient copies, including a scroll found at Qumran, read "the word of your mouth," meaning Hannah's vow. The rendering follows the first.

1:24

The standard Hebrew text and the King James say three bulls. The Dead Sea scroll and the ancient Greek translation read one three-year-old bull instead, which fits the single animal killed in the next verse. An ephah was a dry measure of roughly half a bushel, about twenty liters, or something like forty pounds of flour, an unusually large offering. Wine was carried and stored in whole animal hides sewn shut, not in bottles.

1:25

Killing an animal was how people gave a gift to God. Part of it was burned, and part was eaten together.

1:26

"As surely as you are alive" was a standard oath formula, the spoken equivalent of swearing something is true. Hannah uses it because she is asking Eli to accept an identification he has no way of checking: she is the woman he accused of being drunk, years earlier.

1:28

The Hebrew verb translated "lent" and "dedicated" is the same root as "asked" in verse 20: she asked him from God, and now she gives him back on request. The word does not mean a loan to be recalled; the handing over is permanent. Who does the worshiping at the end is uncertain: the Hebrew verb is singular and could mean Elkanah, or the boy, while some ancient copies read "they worshipped."