1 Samuel 1:9-18

Hannah Prays for a Child. In her distress Hannah betook herself to the sanctuary and prayed before Yahweh, i.e. before the Ark, for a son. She vowed that if a son were given her, she would devote him to Yahweh; the outward sign of his devotion being one of the peculiarities of the Nazirites (pp. 103, 105, Judges 13:5 *, Numbers 6*), viz. that his hair should be allowed to grow. The priest of the sanctuary, Eli, a local magnate, also spoken of as judge, (1 Samuel 4:18) occupied an official seat close by: he knew that the religious character of the occasion did not always prevent feasting from degenerating into excess (Isaiah 28:7; Amos 2:8), so that when he saw Hannah moving her lips without making any audible sound, he thought she was drunk and rebuked her; but she told him she was in trouble and he dismissed her with his blessing.

9. The LXX seems to show that in the original the first sentence read, So Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh and stood before the Lord, i.e. presented herself at the Temple. Eli: perhaps a contraction of Eliel, God is exalted, a name found in Semitic languages outside Israel. The names of Eli's sons, Hophni and Phinheas, were also apparently not Israelite. Eli is ignored in the genealogy of high priests (1 Chronicles 6:1), and there is nothing to show that our document connected Eli with Aaron.

1 Samuel 1:16. The phrase sons of Behal (Deuteronomy 13:13 *, Proverbs 6:12 *), bad characters, is common, but daughter of Belial occurs only here. Under the conditions of Eastern life, women had fewer opportunities for getting into mischief publicly.

1 Samuel 1:18. See p. 105.