1 Sam 1:9 “And Hannah rose up after she had eaten,” etc. (v. 9). According to the Hebrew it reads “after eating in Shiloh, after drinking,” so that it is described impersonally whether Hannah herself ate or drank. From the letter itself it is not gathered that she herself ate or drank, but only that she did not rise in the midst of the meal, but after the meal had been completed. It is nevertheless reasonable to think that although she had earlier wept and had not eaten, yet after the consolation of her husband she did eat and drink. A sign of this is that she did not say to Eli, who thought her drunk, “I am fasting,” but rather that she had not drunk anything intoxicating.
1 Sam 1:10-11 “And Eli the priest was sitting on a seat beside the posts of the temple of the Lord.” And she was bitter in soul, and prayed to the Lord and wept exceedingly (v. 10). And she made a vow and said: “O Lord of hosts, if You will indeed look upon the affliction of Your handmaid, and remember me, and not forget Your handmaid, and give to Your handmaid a male child, I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall come upon his head” (v. 11).
She does not vow the Nazirite state of the child in perpetuity in all things pertaining to the Nazirite, but only with respect to the exemption of the head from the razor. Hannah vowed the Nazirite state in all respects.
1 Sam 1:12-14 And it came to pass, as she prayed long before the Lord, that Eli observed her mouth (v. 12). But Hannah spoke in her heart only; her lips moved, but her voice was not heard (v. 13). And Eli thought her to be drunk. It is clearly written in the Hebrew “drunk,” for human custom makes such a conjecture. And Eli said to her: “How long will you be drunk? Put away the wine from you” (v. 14).
1 Sam 1:15 And Hannah answered and said: “No, my lord, for I am a woman exceedingly afflicted” (v. 15). According to the Hebrew it reads: “I am a woman hard of spirit; wine and strong drink I have not drunk, but I have poured out my soul before the Lord.” By the likeness of a hard thing which does not yield to touch, which is neither bent nor softened but perseveres in its rigidity, she describes her own spirit with regard to the begetting of offspring. And the sense is: my spirit does not yield to consolations nor to the passage of time, but persists in desiring offspring; and therefore I have poured out my soul—that is, all my affections—before God.
1 Sam 1:16 “Do not consider your handmaid as one of the daughters of Belial” (v. 16). Elsewhere it is said that Belial signifies “without a yoke,” and it is applied to every vice insofar as it describes a person acting as though without law. “For out of the abundance of my sorrow…” According to the Hebrew it reads: “For out of the abundance of my speech,” that is, undoubtedly interior speech, “and of my grief, I have spoken until now.”
1 Sam 1:17-18 And Eli answered and said: “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you your petition which you have asked of Him” (v. 17). According to the Hebrew it reads: “And the God of Israel will give your petition.” Whether these words were spoken by way of prayer or of prophecy is unknown. And she said: “Let your handmaid find grace in your eyes.” (v. 18). Desiring the favor of the priest, she takes his words as interceding for her before God
And the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer changed. Although this is not written so fully in Hebrew, it is nevertheless rightly rendered as “restored,” since then—both in spirit, changed by her own prayer and by the word of the priest, and in body, refreshed by suitable food—she no longer suffered that change of countenance which is accustomed to befall those troubled in mind and not refreshed in body.
1 Sam 1:19 And they rose early in the morning and worshiped before the Lord, and returned and came to their house in Ramah. And Elkanah knew Hannah his wife; and the Lord remembered her (v. 19). After abstinence, the conjugal union upon returning to their own house is written, to indicate that they had abstained.
1 Sam 1:20 And it came to pass after the course of days, that Hannah conceived and bore a son, and called his name Samuel (v. 20), for she had asked him of the Lord. It should be read Semuel, because she had asked him from the Lord. And Samuel is a name composed partly entire and partly altered—that is, from El which is the name of God, and from shemu derived from asking, as the letter itself bears witness by giving the reason for the name.
1 Sam 1:21 And the man Elkanah went up, and all his house, to offer to the Lord the yearly sacrifice and his vow (v. 21). According to the Hebrew it reads “the sacrifice of days,” that is, the sacrifice appropriate to the time; and besides this, the customary sacrifice to fulfill his vow, which had previously been tacit. For it is implied that the husband added some vow of his own to the vow of his wife, for the fulfillment of which he is described as having gone up.
1 Sam 1:22-23 But Hannah did not go up; for she said to her husband: “I will not go up until the child is weaned, and I will bring him, that he may appear before the presence of the Lord and remain there forever” (v. 22). And Elkanah her husband said to her: “Do what seems good in your eyes; remain until you have weaned him; only may the Lord establish His word” (v. 23). According to the Hebrew it reads: “Only may the Lord confirm His word.”
It is uncertain whether the word of the Lord here signifies the word of Eli the priest—“May God give you your petition”—or the vow of the wife, because it was directly ordered toward God; or whether some divine revelation preceded and is now narrated tacitly, just as the vow of Elkanah himself had hitherto been tacit and is now recalled explicitly. And this third sense seems to be the one to be embraced, since often in Sacred Scripture many things are passed over in silence in narration which are later supplied by recollection.
1 Sam 1:24 And the woman remained and nursed her son until she weaned him. And she brought him with her after she had weaned him. According to the Hebrew it reads “when she had weaned him.” Unless it had been the custom that boys of three years, at least those of Levitical lineage, dedicated to God, should remain in the house of the Lord, Samuel would by no means have been offered and received as a three-year-old. And she brought three calves, and three measures of flour, and a jar of wine—according to the Hebrew only one measure of flour is written—and she brought him to the house of the Lord in Shiloh; and the child was still very young.
1 Sam 1:25 The sense is rightly rendered, although in Hebrew it reads “and the boy, the boy,” for the name of childhood is repeated. And they slaughtered the calf and brought the boy to Eli (v. 25).
1 Sam 1:26 And she said: “As your soul lives, my lord…” (v. 26). The repetition “my lord” is omitted, for it is repeated from the woman. And these are words of one swearing, to affirm that she is the same woman who formerly stood there praying for offspring; words of an oath, just as even today people frequently swear by their own life, or by the life of a son or father, and the like.
1 Sam 1:27-28 “I am the woman who stood with you here, praying to the Lord. For this child I prayed, and the Lord gave me my petition which I asked of Him” (v. 27). “And I also have lent him to the Lord; all the days that he is, he is lent to the Lord” (v. 28). And he worshiped the Lord there.
Observe, prudent reader, that a pause should be made after the word “was,” for it is an explanation of contemporaneous time. And the sense is: All the days that Samuel was, he himself was lent—dedicated—to the Lord. Do not be astonished that it is not said “as long as he will be,” but note that the lending is presupposed to have been already present in the womb, and this signifies the past was in relation to lent. Although this can also be referred to the then-past, explaining that she does not now begin to dedicate him to God, but that from the time Samuel was—even in her womb—he was lent to God.
And Hannah prayed and said… Truly, here the following second chapter ought to begin. Thus the Canticle follows. It is called a prayer because it truly was such; for it is indeed an elevation of the mind to God for the giving of thanks.
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