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Hannah Prays for a Son
1 Samuel 1:9–18 — Hannah Prays for a Son. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.
9So after they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on a chair by the doorpost of the temple of the LORD.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
’a·ḥă·rê ’ā·ḵə·lāh šā·ṯōh ḇə·ši·lōh ḥan·nāh wat·tā·qām wə·’a·ḥă·rê wə·‘ê·lî hak·kō·hên yō·šêḇ ‘al- hak·kis·sê ‘al- mə·zū·zaṯ hê·ḵal Yah·weh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
After the-eating in-Shiloh and-after the-drinking — and-she-rose-up, Hannah. And-Eli the-priest [was] sitting upon the-throne by the-door-post of-the-palace of-YHWH.
Where the English smooths the original
Hannah, in the bitterness of her spirit, could not enjoy her feast, and so, after eating and drinking a little, she arose and went to the temple,Barnes takes the Hebrew as feminine singular against the AV's plural; Benson and Gill hold that Hannah did eat, at her husband's urging. The Hebrew forms in v. 9 do not settle it.
The “temple of the Lord,” rather, palace of the Lord, so called not from any external magnificence but as being the earthly place where at times the visible glory of the Eternal King of Israel, the Shekinah, was pleased to manifest itself.
It is applied to the tabernacle only here and in 1 Samuel 3:3 , and possibly in Psalm 5:7 . Its use in the present passage may indicate that the book was written at a time when the religious nomenclature had been coloured by the construction of Solomon’s temple.Cambridge raises a dating question from the vocabulary; the Pulpit answers it from usage. We record the disagreement rather than resolve it.
10In her bitter distress, Hannah prayed to the LORD and wept with many tears.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·hî mā·raṯ nā·p̄eš wat·tiṯ·pal·lêl ‘al- Yah·weh ū·ḇā·ḵōh ṯiḇ·keh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-she [was] bitter of-soul; and-she-prayed upon YHWH, and-weeping she-wept.
Where the English smooths the original
She was in bitterness of soul, i.e. oppressed with grief, as that phrase is used, Job 7:11 10:1 Ruth 1:20 .
Her humility appears in her thrice calling herself Jehovah's handmaid; her earnestness in the threefold repetition of the entreaty that Jehovah would look on her, and remember her, and not forget her.
They had newly offered their peace- offerings, to obtain the favour of God; and in token of their communion with him, they had feasted upon the sacrifice: and now it was proper to put up her prayer, in virtue of the sacrifice.Benson's link from peace offering to prayer is a theological inference, not a statement of the Hebrew text; he is candid that he is reading the sacrifice typologically.
her prayer was with strong crying and tears; it was very fervent and affectionate; she prayed most vehemently, and wept bitterly.Gill's phrase deliberately echoes Hebrews 5:7; the echo is his, not the Hebrew's.
11And she made a vow, saying, “O LORD of Hosts, if only You will look upon the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, not forgetting Your maidservant but giving her a son, then I will dedicate him to the LORD all the days of his life, and no razor shall ever touch his head.”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wat·tid·dōr ne·ḏer wat·tō·mar Yah·weh ṣə·ḇā·’ō·wṯ ’im- rā·’ōh ṯir·’eh bā·‘o·nî ’ă·mā·ṯe·ḵā ū·zə·ḵar·ta·nî wə·lō- ṯiš·kaḥ ’eṯ- wə·nā·ṯat·tāh la·’ă·mā·ṯə·ḵā ’ă·mā·ṯe·ḵā ze·ra‘ ’ă·nā·šîm ū·nə·ṯat·tîw Yah·weh kāl- yə·mê ḥay·yāw lō- ū·mō·w·rāh ya·‘ă·leh ‘al- rō·šōw
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-she-vowed a-vow and-she-said: “YHWH of-Hosts, if seeing Thou-wilt-see the-affliction of-Thy-maidservant, and-Thou-rememberest-me and-not Thou-forgettest Thy-maidservant, and-Thou-givest to-Thy-maidservant seed of-men — then-I-will-give-him to-YHWH all the-days of-his-life, and-a-razor shall-not go-up upon his-head.”
Where the English smooths the original
The vow contained two points: (1) she would give the son she had prayed for to be the Lord's all the days of his life, i.e., would dedicate him to the Lord for a lifelong service,K&D is careful that neither clause of the vow qualified Samuel for priestly sacrifice; he holds Samuel later sacrificed "solely by virtue of his prophetic calling."
it is an observation in the Talmud (s), that from the day God created the world, no man called him the Lord of hosts till Hannah came and called him so:Gill reports a rabbinic tradition, and elsewhere notes the tension with 1 Samuel 1:3, where the title already stands — in the narrator's voice, written long after.
The rendering of the LXX. “If thou wilt indeed regard the low estate of thine handmaiden” ( ἐὰν ἐπιβλέπων ἐπιβλέψῃς ἐπὶ τὴν ταπείνωσιν τῆς δούλης σου ) gives the words adopted by the Virgin Mary ( Luke 1:48 ).
Here is a specimen of the intense desire that reigned in the bosoms of the Hebrew women for children.
12As Hannah kept on praying before the LORD, Eli watched her mouth.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·hā·yāh kî hir·bə·ṯāh lə·hiṯ·pal·lêl lip̄·nê Yah·weh wə·‘ê·lî šō·mêr ’eṯ- pî·hā
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-it-came-to-pass, when she-multiplied to-pray before-the-face-of YHWH, that-Eli [was] watching her mouth.
Where the English smooths the original
As she continued praying, Heb. multiplied to pray . By which it appears that she said much more than is here expressed.
continued praying ] Lit. “multiplied to pray,” i.e. “prayed long and earnestly.”
It requires a certain advance in civilisation and refinement to enable a supplicant to separate the petition from the outward expression of it in spoken words, and a strong faith before any one can feel that God hears and knows the silent utterances of the heartThe Pulpit's developmental framing — silent prayer as a mark of advancing "civilisation and refinement" — is Victorian, and the Hebrew text makes no such claim.
observed the motion of her lips, and no doubt her distorted countenance, and uplifted eyes and hands, but chiefly the former; not knowing what the woman was at,
13Hannah was praying in her heart, and though her lips were moving, her voice could not be heard. So Eli thought she was drunk
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·ḥan·nāh hî mə·ḏab·be·reṯ ‘al- lib·bāh raq śə·p̄ā·ṯe·hā nā·‘ō·wṯ wə·qō·w·lāh lō yiš·šā·mê·a‘ ‘ê·lî way·yaḥ·šə·ḇe·hā lə·šik·kō·rāh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Now-Hannah, she [was] speaking upon her-heart; only her-lips [were] quivering, and-her-voice was-not heard. And-Eli reckoned-her for-a-drunken-woman.
Where the English smooths the original
Eli was watching the worshippers, and, as Bunsen well remarks, was struck with dismay at her silent earnestness, such heartfelt prayer being apparently not usual at that time,
Her voice was not heard; partly, to avoid the suspicion of vain-glory; partly, because she would not have others acquainted with her barrenness, which was matter of reproach;
Silent prayer was not usual at the time. Eli’s ready suspicion makes it probable that such excesses were not uncommon at the sacrificial feasts. His hasty and uncharitable judgment points to some of the defects of his character.
14and said to her, “How long will you be drunk? Put away your wine!”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
way·yō·mer ’ê·le·hā ‘ê·lî ‘aḏ- mā·ṯay tiš·tak·kā·rîn hā·sî·rî ’eṯ- yê·nêḵ mê·‘ā·lā·yiḵ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-Eli said to-her: “Until when wilt-thou-make-thyself-drunk? Put-away thy-wine from-upon-thee!”
Where the English smooths the original
and called out to her: "How long dost thou show thyself drunken? put away thy wine from thee," i.e., go away and sleep off thine intoxication
The LXX. or Septuagint attempts to soften the harshness of the high priest to Hannah by inserting before Eli the word “servant,” or “young man,” thus suggesting that the hard, unjust words were spoken by an attendant.A real textual variant: the Greek inserts a servant to spare the high priest. Ellicott rejects it on internal grounds, since v. 15 has Hannah answer Eli directly.
It ill becomes us to be rash and hasty in censures of others, and to think people guilty of bad things while the matter is doubtful and unproved.
from hence the Jews say (w) it may be learnt, that a drunken person ought not to pray.
15“No, my lord,” Hannah replied. “I am a woman troubled in spirit. I have not had any wine or strong drink, but I have poured out my soul before the LORD.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
lō ’ă·ḏō·nî ḥan·nāh wat·tō·mer wat·ta·‘an ’ā·nō·ḵî ’iš·šāh qə·šaṯ- rū·aḥ lō šā·ṯî·ṯî wə·ya·yin wə·šê·ḵār wā·’eš·pōḵ ’eṯ- nap̄·šî lip̄·nê Yah·weh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-Hannah answered and-said: “No, my-lord. A-woman hard of-spirit [am] I. And-wine and-strong-drink I-have-not drunk; but-I-have-poured-out my-soul before-the-face-of YHWH.”
Where the English smooths the original
“Consider the modesty of Hannah, who, though she had received injury from the high priest, yet answers with reverence and humility.”Ellicott is quoting Calvin (via Erdmann); the Cambridge note on this verse gives the same Calvin remark in a slightly different English rendering.
she answered with great mildness and meekness, without falling into a passion at such a scandalous imputation upon her, and with great respect and reverence to Eli, suitable to his office;Gill immediately balances this with the Talmudic reading in which "no, my lord" is itself a rebuke — "not a lord art thou in this matter" — and leaves both on the table.
I am drunk with affliction, not with wine, as is said, Isaiah 51:21 .
16Do not take your servant for a wicked woman, for all this time I have been praying out of the depth of my anguish and grief.”
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
’al- tit·tên ’eṯ- lip̄·nê ’ă·mā·ṯə·ḵā bə·lî·yā·‘al kî- baṯ- ‘aḏ- hên·nāh dib·bar·tî mê·rōḇ śî·ḥî wə·ḵa‘·sî
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“Do-not set thy-maidservant before-thy-face as-a-daughter-of-worthlessness; for out-of-the-abundance of-my-complaint and-my-vexation I-have-spoken until-now.”
Where the English smooths the original
It means worthlessness , and according to the usual Hebrew idiom a son or daughter of worthlessness signifies “a worthless man or woman,” and with positively bad sense, a lawless, ungodly, wicked person.
here to place him in thought in the position of another, i.e., to take him for another. שׂיה, meditation, inward movement of the heart, sighing.
Thus, when we are unjustly censured, we should endeavour not only to clear ourselves, but to satisfy our brethren, by giving them a just and true account of what they misapprehended.
17“Go in peace,” Eli replied, “and may the God of Israel grant the petition you have asked of Him.”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
lə·ḵî lə·šā·lō·wm ‘ê·lî way·yō·mer way·ya·‘an wê·lō·hê yiś·rā·’êl yit·tên ’eṯ- šê·lā·ṯêḵ ’ă·šer šā·’alt mê·‘im·mōw
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-Eli answered and-said: “Go to-peace; and-the-God of-Israel give thy-petition which thou-hast-asked from-with-Him.”
Where the English smooths the original
Here the old man is quick to see that he had been insulting a blameless woman, so at once he retracts his cruel accusation,
Grant, or will grant ; for it may be either a prayer or a prediction,Poole leaves the mood of the Hebrew verb open, which is the honest position; K&D on the same clause closes it the other way.
This word of the high priest was not a prediction, but a pious wish, which God in His grace most gloriously fulfilled.K&D directly contradicts JFB and Gill, who read Eli's words as prophecy. The Hebrew imperfect will bear either reading.
18“May your maidservant find favor with you,” said Hannah. Then she went on her way, and she began to eat, and her face was no longer downcast.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
šip̄·ḥā·ṯə·ḵā tim·ṣā ḥên bə·‘ê·ne·ḵā wat·tō·mer hā·’iš·šāh wat·tê·leḵ lə·ḏar·kāh wat·tō·ḵal ū·p̄ā·ne·hā lō- ‘ō·wḏ hā·yū- lāh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-she-said: “Let-thy-handmaid find favour in-thine-eyes.” And-the-woman went to-her-way, and-she-ate, and-her-face was-no longer to-her.
Where the English smooths the original
The word "sad" is not in the Hebrew text, but it fairly supplies the meaning intended.
and was strengthened and comforted by the word of the high priest, which assured her that her prayer would be heard by God;
Heb. her indignation , or vexation , (as the word face is sometimes understood, as Genesis 32:20 Psalm 21:9 34:16 ) was no more, i.e. it vanished away.Poole's alternative — that pānîm here means vexation rather than countenance — is a genuine lexical option, and it changes what the verse reports has vanished.
So the woman went her way, and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad . (f) That is, pray to the Lord for me.The Geneva entry prints the verse text with its marginal letter; the gloss (f) is the commentary proper, reading Hannah's request as a plea for Eli's intercession.
The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.
AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.
The unit opens on a completed feast and a woman getting up from it. The Hebrew gives two infinitives — אָכְלָ֥ה and שָׁתֹ֑ה — and K&D pauses on the second as a grammatical irregularity, “the infinitive absolute שׁתה instead of the infinitive construct.” Barnes reads the forms as feminine singular and reconstructs the scene accordingly: Hannah “could not enjoy her feast, and so, after eating and drinking a little, she arose and went to the temple, leaving her husband and Peninnah and her children at table.” Benson and Gill take the opposite line, that her husband's kindness had persuaded her to eat; the Pulpit splits the difference, holding that she took part in the banquet “though she did so without appetite or pleasure.” The text itself will not decide, and we do not decide for it.
What the text does insist on is the geography. Eli sits עַל־הַכִּסֵּ֔א — Barnes: “Rather, ‘upon the throne,’ the pontifical chair of state” — at the doorpost of what verse 9 calls הֵיכַ֥ל יְהוָֽה. Ellicott renders that “rather, palace of the Lord, so called not from any external magnificence but as being the earthly place where at times the visible glory of the Eternal King of Israel, the Shekinah, was pleased to manifest itself,” and K&D says the same: the name marks “the dwelling-place of Jehovah of hosts, the God-king of Israel.” Cambridge, more cautious, notes the word is used of the tabernacle only here and at 1 Samuel 3:3, and wonders whether that “may indicate that the book was written at a time when the religious nomenclature had been coloured by the construction of Solomon's temple.” Two seats, then, in one doorway: a judge's throne and, behind the curtain, a King's. The chapter is about which one hears.
Verse 10 states her condition in two words, מָ֣רַת נָ֑פֶשׁ — bitter of soul. Poole grounds the phrase where it belongs, “as that phrase is used, Job 7:11 10:1 Ruth 1:20”; the taste-word of Marah and of Naomi's renaming. And the verb of her praying, pâlal, is a Hitpael — the reflexive of a root that means to judge.
The vow is the unit's centre and its longest sentence. The Pulpit counts its shape: “Her humility appears in her thrice calling herself Jehovah's handmaid; her earnestness in the threefold repetition of the entreaty that Jehovah would look on her, and remember her, and not forget her.” Benson reads the same triple אֲמָתֶ֗ךָ as issuing “out of a profound sense of her meanness, and his majesty.” The petition verbs are Exodus verbs: רָאֹ֥ה תִרְאֶ֣ה, seeing Thou wilt see the ʻŏnîy — the affliction — and וּזְכַרְתַּ֙נִי֙, remember me, the verb that moved the flood back from Noah and opened Rachel's womb.
Gill preserves the rabbinic claim that the title YHWH Tsebaoth is born on this tongue: “it is an observation in the Talmud (s), that from the day God created the world, no man called him the Lord of hosts till Hannah came and called him so.” Gill himself notes the complication — the title already stands at 1 Samuel 1:3, though there in the narrator's later voice. JFB reads the whole prayer sociologically: “Here is a specimen of the intense desire that reigned in the bosoms of the Hebrew women for children.”
Then the two clauses of the vow. K&D separates them exactly: “The vow contained two points: (1) she would give the son she had prayed for to be the Lord's all the days of his life, i.e., would dedicate him to the Lord for a lifelong service,” and (2) the razor. Poole notes that a Levite's own obligation ran only “from his twenty-fifth to his fiftieth year”; Cambridge and the Pulpit both spell out the Nazirite conditions of Numbers 6 and both observe that Samson, Samuel and John the Baptist alone were dedicated from birth. And the razor-word itself, מוֹרָ֖ה, is rare — it stands in three verses of the Hebrew Bible, this one and the two that bracket Samson. Ellicott adds the textual fact that the LXX inserts “and he shall drink neither wine nor strong drink” here to square the vow with the law, while “the original Hebrew text, however, contents itself with specifying merely the outward sign of the untouched hair.”
Poole and Cambridge both give the literal of verse 12: “Heb. multiplied to pray.” Poole draws the inference that ought to govern how we read every recorded prayer in Scripture — “By which it appears that she said much more than is here expressed. And the like you are to judge of the prayers and sermons of other holy persons recorded in Scripture.” Gill pictures what Eli saw: he “observed the motion of her lips, and no doubt her distorted countenance, and uplifted eyes and hands, but chiefly the former; not knowing what the woman was at.”
The Hebrew is complicit in the misreading and honest about it. Her lips are נָּע֔וֹת, from nûwaʻ — to waver, totter, stagger. Ellicott, citing Bunsen, says Eli “was struck with dismay at her silent earnestness, such heartfelt prayer being apparently not usual at that time,” and knowing “how sadly frequent were disorders at the sacrificial meal,” drew the obvious conclusion. Cambridge is harder: “Silent prayer was not usual at the time. Eli's ready suspicion makes it probable that such excesses were not uncommon at the sacrificial feasts. His hasty and uncharitable judgment points to some of the defects of his character.” Poole offers reasons of her own for the silence — “partly, to avoid the suspicion of vain-glory; partly, because she would not have others acquainted with her barrenness, which was matter of reproach.” The Pulpit, whose developmental account of silent prayer is very much of its century, still puts the theological point well: it takes “a strong faith before any one can feel that God hears and knows the silent utterances of the heart.”
Eli's speech is three words of Hebrew and a shove. K&D translates the tone without softening: “How long dost thou show thyself drunken? put away thy wine from thee,” that is, “go away and sleep off thine intoxication.” The Septuagint could not bear it and put the words in a servant's mouth; Ellicott notes the attempt and rejects it, since “in the next verse Hannah replies directly to Eli with the simple words ‘No, my lord.’” Henry's verdict on the priest is the one to keep: “It ill becomes us to be rash and hasty in censures of others, and to think people guilty of bad things while the matter is doubtful and unproved.”
Her answer is a deposition, and every word of it is chosen. Gill: “she answered with great mildness and meekness, without falling into a passion at such a scandalous imputation upon her, and with great respect and reverence to Eli, suitable to his office” — though Gill is careful to record the Talmudic reading in which “no, my lord” is itself a rebuke: not a lord art thou in this matter. Ellicott quotes Calvin: “Consider the modesty of Hannah, who, though she had received injury from the high priest, yet answers with reverence and humility.”
She denies yayin and shêkâr — the exact legal pair of the Nazirite law she is at that moment invoking for her son — and replaces drinking with pouring. וָאֶשְׁפֹּ֥ךְ is a libation verb: Strong's gives “to spill forth (blood, a libation, liquid metal).” Poole's summary is unimprovable: “I am drunk with affliction, not with wine, as is said, Isaiah 51:21.” Then verse 16 and its idiom: K&D on nāṯan liphnê, “to place him in thought in the position of another, i.e., to take him for another,” and on שִׂיחִ֛י, “meditation, inward movement of the heart, sighing.” Cambridge strips the capital letter off Belial — “It means worthlessness, and according to the usual Hebrew idiom a son or daughter of worthlessness signifies ‘a worthless man or woman’… a lawless, ungodly, wicked person” — and quotes Milton's lines, which turn the phrase back on Eli's own sons. Benson takes the pastoral lesson: “when we are unjustly censured, we should endeavour not only to clear ourselves, but to satisfy our brethren.”
Eli withdraws the charge in a sentence. Ellicott is generous to him: “Here the old man is quick to see that he had been insulting a blameless woman, so at once he retracts his cruel accusation.” Whether his next words are prayer or prophecy the commentators openly disagree. Poole: “Grant, or will grant; for it may be either a prayer or a prediction.” JFB leans to prediction — Hannah “regarded it in the light of a prophecy.” Gill allows both. K&D flatly refuses the stronger reading: “This word of the high priest was not a prediction, but a pious wish, which God in His grace most gloriously fulfilled.” We record the split and take no side.
His word שֵׁ֣לָתֵ֔ךְ (shᵉʼêlâh, petition) and her verb שָׁאַ֖לְתְּ (shâʼal, to ask) are the same root — the root that verse 20 will convert into a name. Then verse 18, whose last clause the Hebrew leaves unfinished: וּפָנֶ֥יהָ לֹא־הָיוּ־לָ֖הּ, “and her face was no longer to her.” Barnes states the textual fact plainly: “The word ‘sad’ is not in the Hebrew text, but it fairly supplies the meaning intended.” K&D and Poole supply the same sense; Poole offers the alternative that pānîm here means “her indignation, or vexation… was no more, i.e. it vanished away.” Ellicott, quoting the Speaker's Commentary, calls the whole thing “a beautiful example of the composing influence of prayer,” and Henry, who read the ten verses as a single movement, closes it: “Prayer is heart's ease to a gracious soul.”
⚙ This is the tool's own fallible reading, offered to be tested against the text.
Read the ten verses as a contest between two seats in one doorway. Verse 9 sets them: הַכִּסֵּ֔א, the throne of Israel's judge-priest, planted at the mezuzah of הֵיכַ֥ל יְהוָֽה, the palace of Israel's King. Everything that follows is a double hearing. The man on the visible throne watches (shâmar, the guard-verb) a mouth, hears nothing, and reckons her (châshab, the imputation-verb of Genesis 15:6) a drunk. The King inside the palace is never said to look, or answer, or move — and He is the one who hears. The narrative withholds every sign of divine attention until 1:19–20, and so forces the reader to sit through four verses in which the only audible verdict on Hannah is wrong.
Two ironies hold the passage together, and the text speaks neither aloud. First: the priest accuses her of breaking the Nazirite's rule — yayin and shêkâr, Numbers 6:3 — at the precise moment she is vowing a lifelong Nazirite. Second: he calls her בַּת־בְּלִיָּ֑עַל, a daughter of worthlessness, and 1 Samuel 2:12 will call his own sons sons of worthlessness. The house that judges cannot see; the barren woman who is judged is the one producing the successor. That is the book's whole argument in miniature, and it is laid down before a single prophecy is spoken.
And note what she offers instead of what she is accused of taking. Charged with pouring wine in, she answers that she has poured her nephesh out — shâphak, a libation word — at the doorpost, the place where Israel's blood-marked thresholds and pierced-ear servants belong. She brings no animal. The offering is the emptied self, and the priest at the door mistakes it for a vice. ⚙ We hold this reading loosely: the text never states the ironies, the commentators we quote do not draw them in these terms, and a reader who finds them too neat is entitled to say so.
⚙ Not Scripture — the tool's own line: the priest guarded her mouth and heard nothing; the King she was addressing said nothing, and heard everything.
AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.
The clause וּמוֹרָ֖ה לֹא־יַעֲלֶ֥ה עַל־רֹאשֽׁוֹ is not a general piety but a near-verbatim formula. The noun môwrâh (H4177, razor) stands in only three verses of the entire Hebrew Bible, and the other two are the angel's birth-announcement to Samson's mother (Judges 13:5) and Samson's own betrayal of the secret (Judges 16:17). The Verifier confirms the shared lexeme in both. Hannah is therefore speaking Samson's formula over her unborn son — the last lifelong Nazirite Israel had, and one who ended badly. K&D ties the vow to “Numbers 6:2, and Judges 13:5” directly; Cambridge lists “Samson, Samuel, and St John the Baptist” as the three dedicated to a perpetual Nazirate from birth.
Judges 13:5 · Judges 16:17 · Numbers 6:2
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H4177 môwrâh, which occurs in only 3 verses canon-wide (1 Samuel 1:11; Judges 13:5; Judges 16:17) — a rare lexeme shared in an identical clause-formula. Judges 16:17 additionally shares H5493 çûwr (in 281 vv), which is common and carries no weight. Numbers 6:2 is included as the legal background named by K&D and Cambridge, not as a Verifier-computed lexical match.
Hannah's petition וּזְכַרְתַּ֙נִי֙ (zâkar, H2142) is answered nine verses later in the narrator's own voice: “and the LORD remembered her” (1 Samuel 1:19). The Verifier records the shared lexeme along with the shared name Channâh (H2584, in 11 verses). Zâkar is common — 223 verses — so the link is not a quotation; its force is structural, the deliberate pairing of a request and its granting in one chapter. The same pattern runs through Genesis 8:1 (Noah) and Genesis 30:22 (Rachel), where God's remembering is always immediately followed by an act.
1 Samuel 1:19 · Genesis 30:22
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H2142 zâkar (in 223 vv) and H2584 Channâh (in 11 vv) between 1 Samuel 1:11 and 1 Samuel 1:19. Zâkar is too frequent to support a verbal tier; the link is petition-and-fulfilment within one chapter. Genesis 30:22 is adduced by us as a canonical parallel of the same idiom, not as a Verifier-computed match.
The Hitpael וַתִּתְפַּלֵּ֥ל (pâlal, H6419) that opens Hannah's grief in 1:10 opens her song in 1 Samuel 2:1 — “And Hannah prayed and said.” The Verifier records the shared lexeme twice over, together with the name Channâh. Pâlal is frequent (82 verses), so the connection is compositional rather than citational: the same woman, the same verb, the same sanctuary, once in bitterness of soul and once in exultation. The song that follows in chapter 2 is the answer the silent prayer of chapter 1 never got aloud.
1 Samuel 2:1 · 1 Samuel 1:20
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H6419 pâlal (in 82 vv, twice) and H2584 Channâh (in 11 vv) between 1 Samuel 1:10 and 1 Samuel 2:1; 1 Samuel 1:20 shares H2584 Channâh (in 11 vv) and completes the shâʼal/shᵉʼêlâh wordplay of 1:17. Frequency rules out a verbal tier.
The man seated on the kiççêʼ at Shiloh in 1:9 is the head of a house under sentence. The Verifier links this unit to 1 Samuel 2:12 (Eli's sons as sons of Belial — the very phrase Eli throws at Hannah in 1:16), to 1 Samuel 4:4 (Shiloh and Eli's sons with the ark), and to 1 Kings 2:27, where Abiathar's deposition is called the fulfilment of “the word of the LORD which he spake concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh.” Cambridge traces the whole arc: the office “did not return to the line of Eleazar until Solomon deposed Abiathar in fulfilment of the doom pronounced upon the house of Eli.” The shared lexemes are proper names, which is exactly why this is a narrative thread and not a verbal one.
1 Samuel 2:12 · 1 Samuel 4:4 · 1 Kings 2:27
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H5941 ʻÊlîy (in 30 vv) and H7887 Shîylôh (in 30 vv) across 1 Samuel 2:12, 1 Samuel 4:4 and 1 Kings 2:27. These are proper nouns, so the basis is narrative continuity of persons and place, never quotation. The bᵉlîyaʻal (H1100) echo between 1:16 and 2:12 is our own observation on the Hebrew text, not a Verifier-computed pair.
Cambridge records the fact without embroidery: the LXX renders בָּעֳנִ֣י אֲמָתֶ֗ךָ as τὴν ταπείνωσιν τῆς δούλης σου, and “gives the words adopted by the Virgin Mary (Luke 1:48).” The link therefore runs through the Greek Old Testament, not through the Hebrew: a Greek New Testament verse cannot share a Strong's Hebrew lexeme with 1 Samuel 1:11, and we do not claim one. What can be said is that Luke's Magnificat stands in the same channel as Hannah's song of 1 Samuel 2:1–10, in situation (a lowly woman granted a son), in vocabulary (as the LXX transmits it), and in theme (the mighty pulled down, the hungry filled).
Luke 1:46-55 · Luke 1:48 · 1 Samuel 2:1-10
basis: Cross-Testament (Greek↔Hebrew): no shared Strong's number is possible and none is claimed. Recorded basis is the LXX rendering of 1 Samuel 1:11 (ταπείνωσιν τῆς δούλης σου) against Luke 1:48, a correspondence stated by Cambridge at this verse, plus the acknowledged situational and thematic parallel between 1 Samuel 2:1-10 and Luke 1:46-55. Not tiered verbal, because the verbal contact is between Luke and a translation, not between Luke and the Hebrew text of this unit.
Hannah prays at the מְזוּזַ֖ת (mᵉzûzâh, H4201) of the sanctuary and vows there a servant for “all the days of his life.” Exodus 21:6 sets the servant who refuses his freedom against the doorpost, where his ear is pierced, “and he shall serve him for ever”; the Pulpit itself cites Exodus 21:6 in explaining the mezuzah here. ⚙ The juxtaposition is ours, and we hold it loosely: the Verifier computed no lexical pair between this unit and Exodus 21, the shared noun is common architecture, and the two lifelong servitudes differ in almost every particular except the door they are settled at. We record it as a figure worth testing, not a demonstrated link.
Exodus 21:6 · Deuteronomy 6:9
basis: No Verifier-computed lexical pair supports this. The only connective tissue is the noun H4201 mᵉzûwzâh and the Pulpit's own citation of Exodus 21:6 in its architectural note on this verse. Flagged so a reader tests it rather than inherits it; downgrade further or drop if the Hebrew of Exodus 21:6 will not carry the weight.
AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.
⚙ The vow's logic is that a son is asked from God and, if given, given away — וּנְתַתִּ֤יו לַֽיהוָה֙, “then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life.” K&D insists on how total that is: not the Levite's twenty-fifth-to-fiftieth year, which Poole also specifies, but “a lifelong service, which… the Levites as such were not bound to perform.” The pattern is the Abrahamic one turned round: at Genesis 22 a father is asked to give back the son he was given, and the knife is stopped; here a mother volunteers the giving before the son exists, and it is not stopped. Romans 8:32 names the only instance where the giving is complete on God's side — “He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all.” Hannah's nâthan and Paul's παρέδωκεν are not the same word and belong to different testaments and languages; what they share is a shape, and the shape runs one way: a son handed over so that others receive.
Genesis 22:12 · Romans 8:32 · 1 Samuel 1:11
The three whom Scripture marks as Nazirites from the womb are Samson, Samuel and John the Baptist, and the commentators in this unit make the connection themselves. Cambridge: “The vow was usually taken for a limited time only, but Samson, Samuel, and St John the Baptist were dedicated to a perpetual Nazirate from their birth.” The Pulpit says the same of the institution's afterlife: “This institution remained in existence unto our Lord's days; for John the Baptist was also consecrated to God as a Nazarite by his mother, though not as Samuel, also given to minister in the temple.” The angel's words to Zechariah in Luke 1:15 — he shall drink no wine nor strong drink — are the Numbers 6 pair that Hannah denies in 1:15 and that the LXX inserted into her vow in 1:11. Samuel stands at the hinge between judges and kings and anoints the first two; John stands at the hinge between prophets and the Kingdom and points to the last. Both are born to women who could not have them, and both are given away before they are weaned.
Luke 1:15 · Judges 13:5 · Numbers 6:2
Two threads of this unit reach Luke. The first is verbal in Greek and stated by Cambridge: the LXX's ταπείνωσιν τῆς δούλης σου in Hannah's petition supplies “the words adopted by the Virgin Mary” at Luke 1:48, and Hannah's song in 1 Samuel 2 stands behind the Magnificat's reversals. The second is the stranger one. The Pulpit, commenting on Eli's blessing here, glances at John 11:51 — the passage where Caiaphas, a high priest of a doomed house, says more than he means; Poole makes the same point directly, that prophetic instinct “sometimes was given to the high priests, even when they were wicked.” ⚙ If that is right, then Eli, whose house is already under sentence and who has just slandered the woman in front of him, blesses her and the blessing holds. The office outruns the man. That is the mercy the whole unit runs on, and it is the reason a reader should not conclude, from a bad priest, that no one is listening.
Luke 1:46-55 · Luke 1:48 · John 11:51
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.
Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:
Text. The BSB is CC0; the Hebrew, transliteration, Strong's numbers and parsings are the Berean interlinear as supplied in the brief. Two mechanical cautions about that interlinear: its rows are ordered to follow the English rendering, not the Hebrew, so in 1:9 the conjunction at index 6 trails the verb it precedes in Hebrew, and in 1:15, 1:17 and 1:18 the “said/replied” verbs are listed after the speaker's name rather than in Hebrew order. Our word-index notes key off those supplied indices regardless. In 1:11 the object marker אֶת־ (index 13) carries no gloss and the words for “to thy maidservant” appear at indices 15 and 16 in a way the English cannot mirror; we have not silently regularised any of it.
Disputed readings recorded, not resolved. (1) 1:9 — whether the eating and drinking are Hannah's alone (Barnes, the Pulpit, the Targum as reported by Gill) or the family's (AV, Benson). (2) 1:9 — whether hêykâl for the tabernacle betrays a late date of composition (Barnes reports the suspicion, Cambridge entertains it, the Pulpit rejects it). (3) 1:14 — the LXX inserts a servant as the speaker of the accusation; Ellicott rejects the variant on internal grounds. (4) 1:11 — the LXX adds “and he shall drink neither wine nor strong drink,” absent in the Hebrew (Ellicott). (5) 1:17 — prayer or prediction: K&D says “not a prediction, but a pious wish”; JFB, Gill and Poole allow prophecy. (6) 1:18 — “sad” has no counterpart in the Hebrew; Barnes says so plainly, and Poole offers “her indignation, or vexation… was no more.”
Voices. Henry's entry is a single note on 1:9–18 and is quoted once, under 1:14; JFB's substantive note likewise covers 12–18 and is quoted at 1:11. Barnes's note on 1:11–1:14 is a single repeated paragraph about vows and is not quoted as verse-specific comment. Gill's transcription contains the typo “au abominable crime” at 1:16 in our source; we have not quoted that sentence, and we do not silently correct source text anywhere. Rabbinic and Talmudic material reaches us only through Gill and Ellicott and is reported as their citation, not verified at source. Calvin's remark at 1:15 appears in two different English renderings (Ellicott via Erdmann; Cambridge); we quote Ellicott's and flag the divergence.
Uncertain in our own layer. The two central ironies of the sola-reading — the Nazirite accusation levelled at the moment of a Nazirite vow, and bᵉlîyaʻal thrown at Hannah by the father of the sons whom 1 Samuel 2:12 actually calls sons of bᵉlîyaʻal — are ⚙ inferences from the Hebrew vocabulary. The text never states either, and no commentator in this brief states them in those terms. The Exodus 21:6 doorpost thread is flagged for the same reason. The Talmudic claim that Hannah first used the title “LORD of Hosts” is reported by Gill and is in tension with 1 Samuel 1:3; we have not treated it as settled.
✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)