1 Samuel 1:1-28

1:1 | 1 Samuel begins when judges ruled in Israel and ends with the coronation of David as king. Samuel was the last judge and a good judge who governed according to God’s will. Elkanah was a Levite, which means he held religious responsibilities (1 Chron. 6:26-34). Because he and his family lived in the mountains of Ephraim, he was also called an Ephraimite.

1:3 | Shiloh was the location of the tabernacle and thus the religious center of Israel at this time. Israelite men sojourned there three times a year for Passover, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles (Ex. 34:23).

1:6 | In ancient Israel, children were not only crucial (carriers of the family line, heirs to the family’s land, caretakers of their elderly or widowed parents), they were symbols of God’s blessing. Elkanah gave Hannah a double portion to make up for her barrenness and the ridicule she bore.

1:8 | Personal tragedy so colored Hannah’s perspective that she would lose sight of the beauty and grace already present in her life.

1:10-11 | The best place to go when one feels hopeless and bitter of soul is before God (Ps. 62:8; Phil. 4:6-7; 1 Pet. 5:7). All parents should start at the throne of God in prayer and offer up their children to Him.

1:11 | Hannah placed herself as a humble, submissive servant of the Lord, referring to herself as Your maidservant three times here. That no razor shall come upon his head was the requirement God set forth for Samson (Judg. 13:5). In OT times, long hair symbolized devotion to God and was part of the Nazirite vow (Num. 6:1-21).

1:19-20 | Samuel means “Name of God” or “Offspring of God.” While Elkanah was the child’s biological father, Hannah understood Samuel to be a gift from the Lord. The Lord remembered means that God acted on her behalf in answer to her prayer; He did not forget her (Gen. 21:1; 30:22).

1:22-28 | Children were normally weaned by the age of three. The child that the Lord gave to Hannah, she gave to Him (lent to the Lord) in return, fulfilling her vow in 1:11. In every way, Samuel would be dedicated to the Lord and His service (Luke 2:22).