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From: 1 Samuel 1:9-20

Birth of Samuel (Continuation)

[9] After they had eaten and drunk in Shiloh, Hannah rose. Now Eli the priest
was sitting on the seat beside the doorpost of the temple of the LORD. [10] She
was deeply distressed and prayed to the LORD, and wept bitterly. [11] And she
vowed a vow and said, “O LORD of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction
of thy maidservant, and remember me, and not forget thy maidservant, but wilt
give to thy maidservant a son, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of
his life, and no razor shall touch his head.”

[12] As she continued praying before the LORD, Eli observed her mouth. [13]
Hannah was speaking in her heart; only her lips moved, and her voice was not
heard; therefore Eli took her to be a drunken woman. [14] And Eli said to her,
“How long will you be drunken? Put away your wine from you.” [15] But Hannah
answered, “No, my lord, I am a woman sorely troubled; I have drunk neither wine
nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the LORD. [16] Do
not regard your maidservant as a base woman, for all along I have been speaking
out of my great anxiety and vexation.” [17] Then Eli answered, “Go in peace, and
the God of Israel grant your petition which you have made to him.” [18] And she
said, “Let your maidservant find favor in your eyes.” Then the woman went her
way and ate, and her countenance was no longer sad.

[19] They rose early in the morning and worshipped before the LORD; then they
went back to their house at Ramah. And Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and the
LORD remembered her; [20] and in due time Hannah conceived and bore a son,
and she called his name Samuel, for she said, “I have asked him of the LORD.”

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Commentary:

1:11-20 Eli, the priest and head of the shrine at Shiloh, comes to bless [Hannah]
but even he cannot understand her (vv. 15-l7). God is the only one who listens to
her, and he accepts the vow she has made to him (v. 11). Hannah follows in the
line of Sarah, Rachel and the mother of Samson—other women in whom the ac-
tion of God could be seen very clearly when he took away the stigma of their bar-
renness. But, above all, she is the prototype of the devout woman who perse-
veres in prayer, convinced that it will be heard. “Why is it necessary to list here
all those who, by praying as they ought to do, won from God the greatest gifts?
For it would be easy for anyone to take an abundant sample of cases based in
holy Scripture. Hannah gave birth to Samuel, who was to be compared with Mo-
ses himself (cf. Jer 15:1), because although she was sterile, she had faith and
prayed to the Lord (1 Sam 1:9ff). [...] How many favors each of us could tell of
if we recalled with gratitude the gifts we have received in order to praise God for
them! Once they have been watered by the grace of the Holy Spirit through con-
stant prayer, souls that have gone for a long time without bearing fruit, sterile in
the most noble part of their being and with the signs of death on their souls, think
wholesome thoughts and are filled with the knowledge of the truth” (Origen, “De
Oratione”, 13, 2-3).

Hannah, who will bear Samuel in her womb, is a figure of Mary and also “a sym-
bol of the Church which carries the Lord. Her prayer is not clamorous, rather it is
calm and refined; she prays in the depths of her heart because she knows that
God listens to her there” (St Cyprian, “De Oratione Dominica”, 5).

Samuel comes into the world as a gift from God; he is the one who was “asked
for of the Lord” (cf. v. 20), according to a popular etymology of his name. His
mission on earth will be as exceptional as his birth; Hannah presents him at the
shrine: “as long as he lives he is lent the Lord” (v. 28). Samuel is brought up by
the priest at the shrine of Shiloh (cf. Judg 18:31; 21:19), that is, within the an-
cient institutions of the time of the judges; thus, the new institutions he will es-
tablish do not imply any break with or rejection of what went before.

1:11. At Shiloh God was invoked as “Lord of hosts”, an expression which con-
veys the notion of his sovereignty over all creation and, also, his preferential love
for his own. The fact that Hannah prays in the temple precincts shows that Sam-
uel will be the fruit of her petition and it will mean that God has intervened in a
special way on her behalf and for the good of the whole people.

Hannah’s vow about her future child means that he will be a Nazirite; that dedica-
tion involved abstaining from alcohol, avoiding any contact with dead bodies and
not cutting one’s hair (cf. the note on Num 6:1-21), The vow means that Samuel
will be permanently and exclusively given to the tasks God gives him.

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.