1 Samuel 1:27

This child. Samuel’s age when he was weaned is not known. It is a common thing in the Orient for a child to continue nursing till he is three years old, and it is quite possible that Isaac, for example, could have been five years old when Abraham held the feast at which he made Isaac his heir (see Gen. 21:8). Since Hannah had not attended the feast since Samuel’s birth, Eli had probably forgotten the incident.

According to this verse Hannah had not told Eli the nature of her request, but now with great joy she proceeded to do so. In giving expression to her joy she made a turn on the Hebrew word sha‘al, “to ask,” using different forms of the verb. Translated literally the text reads, “Concerning this child I interposed myself, and the Lord hath given me my asking which I asked of him, and I am also constrained to ask him for the Lord. As long as he lives he is asked for the Lord.” Hannah recognized with joy that her gift to God was first His gift to her. She could say with David, “Of thine own have we given thee” (1 Chron. 29:14). It was such love as this that led Ruth to exclaim, “The Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me” (Ruth 1:17), and Paul to affirm, “To me to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21).