The Fallible Study Bible

The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible

1 Samuel1:9–18

Hannah Prays for a Son

✦ Public-domain source — quoted & attributed⚙ AI synthesis — generated, verify

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.

9

So 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.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

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

Word by word16 · parsed
אַחֲרֵ֛י’a·ḥă·rêSo afterH310
√ ʼachar — properly, the hind partPreposition
אָכְלָ֥ה’ā·ḵə·lāhthey had finished eatingH398
√ ʼâkal — to eat (literally or figuratively)VerbQalInfinitive constructthird person feminine singular
שָׁתֹ֑הšā·ṯōhand drinkingH8354
√ shâthâh — to imbibe (literally or figuratively)VerbQalInfinitive absolute
shâthâh — to imbibe (Qal infinitive absolute) The infinitive absolute where the construct is expected is the verse's one grammatical roughness, and K&D compares ʻozzî wᵉzimrāth at Exodus 15:2. The effect is to name the feast as a completed thing — eating, drinking — from which one woman detaches herself.
בְשִׁלֹ֖הḇə·ši·lōhin ShilohH7887
√ Shîylôh — Shiloh, a place in PalestinePreposition-bNounproperfeminine singular
חַנָּ֔הḥan·nāhHannahH2584
√ Channâh — Channah, an IsraelitessNounproperfeminine singular
וַתָּ֣קָםwat·tā·qāmstood upH6965
√ qûwm — to rise (in various applications, literal, figurative, intensive and causative)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person feminine singular
qûwm — to rise (Qal consecutive imperfect, 3fs) The verb is feminine singular and stands alone: the whole family is at table, and the narrative's camera follows the one who gets up. Benson reads the rising as obedience and recovered appetite; Barnes and the Pulpit read it as a woman leaving a feast she could not enjoy. Nothing in the Hebrew decides between them; everything after it follows from the rising.
וְאַחֲרֵ֣יwə·’a·ḥă·rê. . .H310
√ ʼachar — properly, the hind partConjunctive wawPreposition
וְעֵלִ֣יwə·‘ê·lîNow EliH5941
√ ʻÊlîy — Eli, an Israelite highpriestConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular
הַכֹּהֵ֗ןhak·kō·hênthe priestH3548
√ kôhên — literally one officiating, a priestArticleNounmasculine singular
יֹשֵׁב֙yō·šêḇwas sittingH3427
√ yâshab — properly, to sit down (specifically as judgeVerbQalParticiplemasculine singular
yâshab — to sit down, specifically as judge (Qal participle) A participle, not a narrative verb: Eli is not described as sitting down but as sitting, habitually, in state. The same root supplies the sense “to sit as judge,” and Cambridge is blunt that “Eli united the offices of Priest and Judge.” The posture is the point — seated authority watching standing grief.
עַל־‘al-onH5921
√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition
הַכִּסֵּ֔אhak·kis·sêa chairH3678
√ kiççêʼ — properly, covered, iArticleNounmasculine singular
kiççêʼ — throne, seat of honour The word used of royal thrones throughout the Old Testament. Ellicott: “a chair or throne of state, where the high-priestly judge sat at certain times to administer justice.” 1 Samuel 4:18 will kill Eli by making him fall backward off this same seat; the throne at the door is where his house both judges and ends.
עַל־‘al-byH5921
√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition
מְזוּזַ֖תmə·zū·zaṯthe doorpostH4201
√ mᵉzûwzâh — a door-post (as prominent)Nounfeminine singular construct
mᵉzûwzâh — a door-post (as prominent) The doorpost is the threshold word of Israel's memory: blood on the mezuzot at Exodus 12, the law bound upon them at Deuteronomy 6:9, the pierced ear of the willing lifelong servant at Exodus 21:6. Hannah prays at the doorpost and vows a lifelong servant there.
הֵיכַ֥לhê·ḵalof the templeH1964
√ hêykâl — a large public building, such as a palace or templeNounmasculine singular construct
hêykâl — palace, temple, large public building Barnes records the critical suspicion honestly: “the use of this word here is thought by some an indication of the late date of the composition of this passage.” The Pulpit answers that the name was simply in use before Solomon built. ⚙ Either way the word's own sense — palace — makes the scene a throne room: a subject is petitioning her King, and a lesser throne stands in the doorway.
יְהוָֽה׃Yah·wehof the LORDH3068
√ Yᵉhôvâh — Jehovah, Jewish national name of GodNounpropermasculine singular
Yᵉhôvâh — the covenant name The palace belongs to YHWH; the chair in its door belongs to Eli. The verse sets the two seats side by side without comment, and the rest of the chapter tests which one hears.
10

In her bitter distress, Hannah prayed to the LORD and wept with many tears.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

wə·hî mā·raṯ nā·p̄eš wat·tiṯ·pal·lêl ‘al- Yah·weh ū·ḇā·ḵōh ṯiḇ·keh

Word by word8 · parsed
וְהִ֖יאwə·hîH1931
√ hûwʼ — he (she or it)Conjunctive wawPronounthird person feminine singular
מָ֣רַתmā·raṯIn her bitter distressH4751
√ mar — bitter (literally or figuratively)Adjectivefeminine singular construct
mar — bitter (literally or figuratively) The word of Marah's undrinkable water (Exodus 15:23) and of Naomi's renaming: “call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me” (Ruth 1:20) — the very verse Poole cites here. Hannah stands in the line of Israel's bitter women, but she takes the bitterness to the doorpost instead of to a new name.
נָ֑פֶשׁnā·p̄eš. . .H5315
√ nephesh — properly, a breathing creature, iNounfeminine singular
nephesh — a breathing creature, soul, appetite, life Not the immaterial part of a person but the whole living self at the point where it hungers and breathes. That matters for v. 15, where the same nephesh is what she pours out like a drink offering: what is bitter here is what is poured there.
וַתִּתְפַּלֵּ֥לwat·tiṯ·pal·lêlHannah prayedH6419
√ pâlal — to judge (officially or mentally)Conjunctive wawVerbHitpaelConsecutive imperfectthird person feminine singular
pâlal — to judge (Hitpael: to pray) ⚙ The lexical root is forensic — to judge, to intervene, to arbitrate — so the Hitpael carries the sense of placing oneself under judgment, or interposing. A woman whom her rival has judged, and whom the priest is about to judge, goes to the one court whose verdict she will accept. The same verb returns in Hannah's song at 1 Samuel 2:1.
עַל־‘al-toH5921
√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition
יְהוָ֖הYah·wehthe LORDH3068
√ Yᵉhôvâh — Jehovah, Jewish national name of GodNounpropermasculine singular
וּבָכֹ֥הū·ḇā·ḵōhand wept with many tearsH1058
√ bâkâh — to weepConjunctive wawVerbQalInfinitive absolute
bâkâh — to weep The infinitive absolute before its own finite verb: Hebrew's way of leaning on a word. Henry, reading the whole scene at once, says simply: “Hannah mingled tears with her prayers.”
תִבְכֶּֽה׃ṯiḇ·keh. . .H1058
√ bâkâh — to weepVerbQalImperfectthird person feminine singular
11

And 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.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

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

Word by word29 · parsed
וַתִּדֹּ֨רwat·tid·dōrAnd she madeH5087
√ nâdar — to promise (posConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person feminine singular
נֶ֜דֶרne·ḏera vowH5088
√ neder — a promise (to God)Nounmasculine singular
neder — a promise (to God) Barnes observes that “vows are characteristic of this particular age of the Judges” and points to Jephthah (Judges 11:30) and Judges 21:5. That is the era's dangerous instrument: Jephthah's vow destroyed a daughter; Hannah's vow gives a son away and receives him back. Cambridge and Gill both note that Numbers 30 lets a husband annul a married woman's vow — Elkanah's silent consent stands behind the whole chapter.
וַתֹּאמַ֗רwat·tō·marsayingH559
√ ʼâmar — to say (used with great latitude)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person feminine singular
יְהוָ֨הYah·wehO LORDH3068
√ Yᵉhôvâh — Jehovah, Jewish national name of GodNounpropermasculine singular
צְבָא֜וֹתṣə·ḇā·’ō·wṯof HostsH6635
√ tsâbâʼ — a mass of persons (or figuratively, things), especially regNouncommon plural
tsâbâʼ — a mass of persons, a host, an army Gill records the tradition precisely: “from the day God created the world, no man called him the Lord of hosts till Hannah came and called him so.” ⚙ Whether or not the Talmudic claim holds as literary history (the phrase already stands in the narrator's voice at 1 Samuel 1:3), the title's first use on a human tongue in this book is a childless woman addressing the commander of armies about a womb.
אִם־’im-ifH518
√ ʼim — used very widely as demonstrative, lo!Conjunction
רָאֹ֥הrā·’ōhonly You will lookH7200
√ râʼâh — to see, literally or figuratively (in numerous applications, direct and implied, transitive, intransitive and causative)VerbQalInfinitive absolute
râʼâh — to see (infinitive absolute + imperfect) The doubled verb is covenant language for God's attention to affliction. Cambridge notes that the LXX renders the clause with ταπείνωσιν (“low estate”), and that these are “the words adopted by the Virgin Mary” at Luke 1:48. The Greek Bible thus makes Hannah's petition the vocabulary of the Magnificat.
תִרְאֶ֣ה׀ṯir·’eh. . .H7200
√ râʼâh — to see, literally or figuratively (in numerous applications, direct and implied, transitive, intransitive and causative)VerbQalImperfectsecond person masculine singular
בָּעֳנִ֣יbā·‘o·nîupon the afflictionH6040
√ ʻŏnîy — depression, iPreposition-bNounmasculine singular construct
ʻŏnîy — depression, affliction, misery The noun of the Exodus: it is Israel's ʻŏnîy in Egypt that God says He has seen (Exodus 3:7) and that the people worship Him for having looked upon (Exodus 4:31). Hannah attaches the nation's affliction-word to a private, unwitnessed grief, and attaches to it the nation's seeing-verb doubled. Poole keeps the referent narrow and honest: “The affliction, i.e. the barrenness and reproach which attends it.” ⚙ The LXX's choice here, ταπείνωσιν — low estate rather than affliction — is what carries the phrase into Luke 1:48, as Cambridge notes on this verse.
אֲמָתֶ֗ךָ’ă·mā·ṯe·ḵāof Your maidservantH519
√ ʼâmâh — a maidservant or female slaveNounfeminine singular constructsecond person masculine singular
וּזְכַרְתַּ֙נִי֙ū·zə·ḵar·ta·nîand remember meH2142
√ zâkar — properly, to mark (so as to be recognized), iConjunctive wawVerbQalConjunctive perfectsecond person masculine singularfirst person common singular
zâkar — properly, to mark so as to be recognized; to remember Biblical remembering is not recall but action: God “remembered Noah” and the waters fell, “remembered Rachel” and she conceived. Hannah asks for the covenant verb and doubles it with its negation — remember, and do not forget. 1 Samuel 1:19 answers with the same lexeme: “and the LORD remembered her.”
וְלֹֽא־wə·lō-notH3808
√ lôʼ — not (the simple or absConjunctive wawAdverbNegative particle
תִשְׁכַּ֣חṯiš·kaḥforgetting [Your maidservant]H7911
√ shâkach — to mislay, iVerbQalImperfectsecond person masculine singular
אֶת־’eṯ-H853
√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker
וְנָתַתָּ֥הwə·nā·ṯat·tāhbut givingH5414
√ nâthan — to give, used with greatest latitude of application (put, make, etcConjunctive wawVerbQalConjunctive perfectsecond person masculine singular
לַאֲמָתְךָ֖la·’ă·mā·ṯə·ḵā. . .H519
√ ʼâmâh — a maidservant or female slavePreposition-lNounfeminine singular constructsecond person masculine singular
אֲמָתֶ֔ךָ’ă·mā·ṯe·ḵā[her]H519
√ ʼâmâh — a maidservant or female slaveNounfeminine singular constructsecond person masculine singular
זֶ֣רַעze·ra‘a sonH2233
√ zeraʻ — seedNounmasculine singular construct
zeraʻ — seed The covenant noun: the seed of the woman at Genesis 3:15, the seed promised to Abraham at Genesis 12:7, the seed of David at 2 Samuel 7:12 — the last of these sworn to a king this child will one day anoint. It is equally an agricultural word, which is why K&D renders the construct chain flatly as semen virorum and Gill can pass on the Targum's “a son in the midst of men” while rejecting the rabbinic gloss that reads it as seed of “righteous, wise, and understanding men,” a sense Gill calls “foreign to the text.” ⚙ In Hannah's mouth the phrase asks for one male child and nothing more; the canonical resonance is ours to hear, not hers to intend.
אֲנָשִׁ֑ים’ă·nā·šîm. . .H582
√ ʼĕnôwsh — a man in general (singly or collectively)Nounmasculine plural
וּנְתַתִּ֤יוū·nə·ṯat·tîwthen I will dedicate himH5414
√ nâthan — to give, used with greatest latitude of application (put, make, etcConjunctive wawVerbQalConjunctive perfectfirst person common singularthird person masculine singular
לַֽיהוָה֙Yah·wehto the LORDH3068
√ Yᵉhôvâh — Jehovah, Jewish national name of GodPreposition-lNounpropermasculine singular
כָּל־kāl-allH3605
√ kôl — properly, the wholeNounmasculine singular construct
יְמֵ֣יyə·mêthe daysH3117
√ yôwm — a day (as the warm hours), whether literal (from sunrise to sunset, or from one sunset to the next), or figurative (a space of time defined by an associated term), (often used adverb)Nounmasculine plural construct
חַיָּ֔יוḥay·yāwof his lifeH2416
√ chay — aliveNounmasculine plural constructthird person masculine singular
לֹא־lō-and noH3808
√ lôʼ — not (the simple or absAdverbNegative particle
וּמוֹרָ֖הū·mō·w·rāhrazorH4177
√ môwrâh — a razorConjunctive wawNounmasculine singular
môwrâh — a razor (rare: 3 verses) The vow's second clause, and the one the Hebrew actually spells out. Ellicott notes that the LXX adds “and he shall drink neither wine nor strong drink,” harmonising to Numbers 6, while “the original Hebrew text, however, contents itself with specifying merely the outward sign of the untouched hair.” The added line is a Greek clarification, not a Hebrew reading.
יַעֲלֶ֥הya·‘ă·lehshall ever touchH5927
√ ʻâlâh — to ascend, intransitively (be high) or actively (mount)VerbQalImperfectthird person masculine singular
עַל־‘al-. . .H5921
√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition
רֹאשֽׁוֹ׃rō·šōwhis headH7218
√ rôʼsh — the head (as most easily shaken), whether literal or figurative (in many applications, of place, time, rank, itcNounmasculine singular constructthird person masculine singular
rôʼsh — the head The unshorn head is the public, unmistakable badge. Ellicott reads it as “a public protest that the consecrated one had determined to refrain from intercourse with the world”; the Pulpit, as “at once the distinctive mark by which all men would recognise his sacred calling.”
12

As Hannah kept on praying before the LORD, Eli watched her mouth.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

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

Word by word10 · parsed
וְהָיָה֙wə·hā·yāhH1961
√ hâyâh — to exist, iConjunctive wawVerbQalConjunctive perfectthird person masculine singular
כִּ֣יkîAsH3588
√ kîy — (by implication) very widely used as a relative conjunction or adverb (as below)Conjunction
הִרְבְּתָ֔הhir·bə·ṯāh[Hannah] kept onH7235
√ râbâh — to increase (in whatever respect)VerbHifilPerfectthird person feminine singular
râbâh — to increase, multiply (Hifil) Causative: she made prayer abundant. ⚙ Set against Matthew 6:7 the phrase reads oddly — she is doing precisely what is there forbidden, using many words — until one notices that no one hears the words at all. Length without audience is not vain repetition; it is a long refusal to leave.
לְהִתְפַּלֵּ֖לlə·hiṯ·pal·lêlprayingH6419
√ pâlal — to judge (officially or mentally)Preposition-lVerbHitpaelInfinitive construct
pâlal — to pray (Hitpael infinitive construct) Same stem as v. 10, now governed by râbâh: the whole act of self-submission is what she multiplies.
לִפְנֵ֣יlip̄·nêbeforeH6440
√ pânîym — the face (as the part that turns)Preposition-lNouncommon plural construct
יְהוָ֑הYah·wehthe LORDH3068
√ Yᵉhôvâh — Jehovah, Jewish national name of GodNounpropermasculine singular
וְעֵלִ֖יwə·‘ê·lîEliH5941
√ ʻÊlîy — Eli, an Israelite highpriestConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular
שֹׁמֵ֥רšō·mêrwatchedH8104
√ shâmar — properly, to hedge about (as with thorns), iVerbQalParticiplemasculine singular
shâmar — to hedge about, guard, keep (Qal participle) The participle makes the watching continuous, as Eli's sitting was in v. 9. ⚙ The book will shortly indict this same man for what he failed to watch: his sons at the door of the tent (1 Samuel 2:22) and their contempt for the offering. A guard who scrutinises a praying woman's lips while the sanctuary rots is the unit's sharpest irony, and the text never states it aloud.
אֶת־’eṯ-H853
√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker
פִּֽיהָ׃pî·hāher mouthH6310
√ peh — the mouth (as the means of blowing), whether literal or figurative (particularly speech)Nounmasculine singular constructthird person feminine singular
13

Hannah 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

Word by word14 · parsed
וְחַנָּ֗הwə·ḥan·nāhHannahH2584
√ Channâh — Channah, an IsraelitessConjunctive wawNounproperfeminine singular
הִ֚יאhî. . .H1931
√ hûwʼ — he (she or it)Pronounthird person feminine singular
מְדַבֶּ֣רֶתmə·ḏab·be·reṯwas prayingH1696
√ dâbar — perhaps properly, to arrangeVerbPielParticiplefeminine singular
עַל־‘al-inH5921
√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition
לִבָּ֔הּlib·bāhher heartH3820
√ lêb — the heartNounmasculine singular constructthird person feminine singular
lêb — the heart In Hebrew the seat of thought and will, not merely of feeling. Henry draws the doctrine from it: “She spoke softly, none could hear her. Hereby she testified her belief of God's knowledge of the heart and its desires.”
רַ֚קraqand thoughH7535
√ raq — properly, leanness, iAdverb
שְׂפָתֶ֣יהָśə·p̄ā·ṯe·hāher lipsH8193
√ sâphâh — the lip (as a natural boundary)Nounfeminine dual constructthird person feminine singular
נָּע֔וֹתnā·‘ō·wṯwere movingH5128
√ nûwaʻ — to waver, in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively (as subjoined)VerbQalParticiplefeminine plural
nûwaʻ — to waver, totter, stagger ⚙ The same root describes the staggering of the drunk in Isaiah 24:20 and 29:9. The narrator has chosen the one verb that makes Eli's error intelligible without excusing it: what the priest saw really did look like drunkenness, and he still judged a face instead of asking a question.
וְקוֹלָ֖הּwə·qō·w·lāhher voiceH6963
√ qôwl — a voice or soundConjunctive wawNounmasculine singular constructthird person feminine singular
לֹ֣אlōcould notH3808
√ lôʼ — not (the simple or absAdverbNegative particle
יִשָּׁמֵ֑עַyiš·šā·mê·a‘be heardH8085
√ shâmaʻ — to hear intelligently (often with implication of attention, obedience, etcVerbNifalImperfectthird person masculine singular
shâmaʻ — to hear intelligently (Nifal) Passive: her voice “was not heard” — the text does not say by whom. ⚙ The silence is total toward Eli and, the chapter insists, not silence at all toward YHWH. Verse 17 and verse 20 are the record of what was heard.
עֵלִ֖י‘ê·lîSo EliH5941
√ ʻÊlîy — Eli, an Israelite highpriestNounpropermasculine singular
וַיַּחְשְׁבֶ֥הָway·yaḥ·šə·ḇe·hāthoughtH2803
√ châshab — properly, to plait or interpenetrate, iConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singularthird person feminine singular
châshab — to plait, interpenetrate; to reckon, impute The accounting verb. Eli assigns her a category; vv. 15–16 are her refusal of the assignment, and v. 17 is his withdrawal of it.
לְשִׁכֹּרָֽה׃lə·šik·kō·rāhshe was drunkH7910
√ shikkôwr — intoxicated, as astate or a habitPreposition-lAdjectivefeminine singular
shikkôwr — intoxicated, as a state or a habit Strong's own gloss notes the word can name a habit and not only an episode. Gill takes it that way in the next verse — “What, every day drunk?” — and Cambridge draws the darker inference: “Eli's ready suspicion makes it probable that such excesses were not uncommon at the sacrificial feasts.”
14

and said to her, “How long will you be drunk? Put away your wine!”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

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

Word by word10 · parsed
וַיֹּ֤אמֶרway·yō·merand saidH559
√ ʼâmar — to say (used with great latitude)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
אֵלֶ֙יהָ֙’ê·le·hāto herH413
√ ʼêl — near, with or amongPrepositionthird person feminine singular
עֵלִ֔י‘ê·lî. . .H5941
√ ʻÊlîy — Eli, an Israelite highpriestNounpropermasculine singular
עַד־‘aḏ-HowH5704
√ ʻad — as far (or long, or much) as, whether of space (even unto) or time (during, while, until) or degree (equally with)Preposition
מָתַ֖יmā·ṯaylongH4970
√ mâthay — properly, extent (of time)Interrogative
תִּשְׁתַּכָּרִ֑יןtiš·tak·kā·rînwill you be drunkH7937
√ shâkar — to become tipsyVerbHitpaelImperfectsecond person feminine singularParagogic nun
shâkar — to become tipsy (Hitpael) The reflexive stem makes the charge behavioural — she is putting drunkenness on display. Gill reads the imperfect as habitual (“What, every day drunk?”) and notes the Targum's softening: “how long wilt thou behave like a fool, or a mad woman?”
הָסִ֥ירִיhā·sî·rîPut awayH5493
√ çûwr — to turn off (literal or figurative)VerbHifilImperativefeminine singular
çûwr — to turn off (Hifil imperative) Gill records that the rabbis derived a rule of prayer from this verse: a drunken person ought not to pray. ⚙ The rule is sound and the application here is a slander; the same verse yields both.
אֶת־’eṯ-H853
√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker
יֵינֵ֖ךְyê·nêḵyour wineH3196
√ yayin — wine (as fermented)Nounmasculine singular constructsecond person feminine singular
yayin — wine (as fermented) Paired in v. 15 with shêkâr, the two together forming the standard Nazirite prohibition of Numbers 6:3. Hannah, accused of breaking a Nazirite's rule, is at that moment vowing a Nazirite's life for her unborn son.
מֵעָלָֽיִךְ׃mê·‘ā·lā·yiḵ. . .H5921
√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition-msecond person feminine singular
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.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

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

Word by word18 · parsed
לֹ֣אlōNoH3808
√ lôʼ — not (the simple or absAdverbNegative particle
אֲדֹנִ֔י’ă·ḏō·nîmy lordH113
√ ʼâdôwn — sovereign, iNounmasculine singular constructfirst person common singular
חַנָּ֤הḥan·nāhHannahH2584
√ Channâh — Channah, an IsraelitessNounproperfeminine singular
וַתֹּ֙אמֶר֙wat·tō·mer. . .H559
√ ʼâmar — to say (used with great latitude)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person feminine singular
וַתַּ֨עַןwat·ta·‘anrepliedH6030
√ ʻânâh — properly, to eye or (generally) to heed, iConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person feminine singular
אָנֹ֔כִי’ā·nō·ḵîIH595
√ ʼânôkîy — IPronounfirst person common singular
אִשָּׁ֤ה’iš·šāham a womanH802
√ ʼishshâh — a womanNounfeminine singular
קְשַׁת־qə·šaṯ-troubledH7186
√ qâsheh — severe (in various applications)Adjectivefeminine singular construct
qâsheh — severe, hard, stiff The adjective of Exodus 32:9 (“a stiff-necked people”) and of hard labour in Egypt. ⚙ She uses the harshest available self-description, and it is not a plea of innocence but a description of pressure: a spirit under weight, not a spirit in rebellion. Gill preserves both possible readings without deciding.
ר֙וּחַ֙rū·aḥin spiritH7307
√ rûwach — windNouncommon singular
rûwach — wind, breath, spirit Paired with nephesh in the same speech: the breath is hard, the soul is poured out. Hebrew anthropology here is entirely physical and entirely interior at once.
לֹ֣אlōI have notH3808
√ lôʼ — not (the simple or absAdverbNegative particle
שָׁתִ֑יתִיšā·ṯî·ṯîhadH8354
√ shâthâh — to imbibe (literally or figuratively)VerbQalPerfectfirst person common singular
וְיַ֥יִןwə·ya·yinany wineH3196
√ yayin — wine (as fermented)Conjunctive wawNounmasculine singular
וְשֵׁכָ֖רwə·šê·ḵāror strong drinkH7941
√ shêkâr — an intoxicant, iConjunctive wawNounmasculine singular
וָאֶשְׁפֹּ֥ךְwā·’eš·pōḵbut I have poured outH8210
√ shâphak — to spill forth (blood, a libation, liquid metalConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectfirst person common singular
shâphak — to spill forth, pour out (a libation) K&D cross-references Psalm 42; Poole adds Job 30:16, Psalm 62:8 and 142:2 — “I pour out my complaint before him.” Gill notes the Psalms “seem to be taken from hence.” ⚙ That ordering is Gill's conjecture, not a datable fact; what is certain is that Hannah's phrase and the Psalter's share one idiom of emptied-out prayer.
אֶת־’eṯ-H853
√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker
נַפְשִׁ֖יnap̄·šîmy soulH5315
√ nephesh — properly, a breathing creature, iNounfeminine singular constructfirst person common singular
nephesh — soul, life, appetite The same word that was bitter in v. 10 is the thing poured out in v. 15. The unit's interior arc is one noun long: a bitter nephesh becomes an emptied nephesh, and then a face that is no longer what it was.
לִפְנֵ֥יlip̄·nêbeforeH6440
√ pânîym — the face (as the part that turns)Preposition-lNouncommon plural construct
יְהוָֽה׃Yah·wehthe LORDH3068
√ Yᵉhôvâh — Jehovah, Jewish national name of GodNounpropermasculine singular
Yᵉhôvâh Her sentence ends where v. 12 said her praying was directed: liphnê YHWH, at the face of the LORD. She answers a man by naming the only witness who heard her.
16

Do 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

Word by word14 · parsed
אַל־’al-Do notH408
√ ʼal — not (the qualified negation, used as a deprecative)Adverb
תִּתֵּן֙tit·têntakeH5414
√ nâthan — to give, used with greatest latitude of application (put, make, etcVerbQalImperfectsecond person masculine singular
nâthan — to give, set, place The same verb she used twice in her vow (“Thou givest… I will give him”) now governs a request not to be given a false character. ⚙ One root, three uses: what God gives, what she gives back, and what she begs not to be assigned.
אֶת־’eṯ-H853
√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker
לִפְנֵ֖יlip̄·nêH6440
√ pânîym — the face (as the part that turns)Preposition-lNouncommon plural construct
אֲמָ֣תְךָ֔’ă·mā·ṯə·ḵāyour servantH519
√ ʼâmâh — a maidservant or female slaveNounfeminine singular constructsecond person masculine singular
בְּלִיָּ֑עַלbə·lî·yā·‘alfor a wickedH1100
√ bᵉlîyaʻal — without profit, worthlessnessNounmasculine singular
bᵉlîyaʻal — without profit, worthlessness The book uses this term as a structural verdict: at 1 Samuel 2:12 Eli's own sons are bᵉnê bᵉlîyaʻal, sons of worthlessness. ⚙ The man who calls this woman a daughter of Belial is the father of the sons Scripture actually names so. Cambridge quotes Milton's version of exactly that irony.
כִּֽי־kî-. . .H3588
√ kîy — (by implication) very widely used as a relative conjunction or adverb (as below)Conjunction
בַּת־baṯ-womanH1323
√ bath — a daughter (used in the same wide sense as other terms of relationship, literally and figuratively)Nounfeminine singular construct
עַד־‘aḏ-for all this timeH5704
√ ʻad — as far (or long, or much) as, whether of space (even unto) or time (during, while, until) or degree (equally with)Preposition
הֵֽנָּה׃hên·nāh. . .H2008
√ hênnâh — hither or thither (but used both of place and time)Adverb
hênnâh — hither or thither, of place and time With ʻad: “until now.” A small adverb doing real work — she is dating her speech, insisting that everything Eli watched was this and nothing else.
דִּבַּ֥רְתִּיdib·bar·tîI have been prayingH1696
√ dâbar — perhaps properly, to arrangeVerbPielPerfectfirst person common singular
מֵרֹ֥בmê·rōḇout of the depthH7230
√ rôb — abundance (in any respect)Preposition-mNounmasculine singular construct
שִׂיחִ֛יśî·ḥîof my anguishH7879
√ sîyach — a contemplationNounmasculine singular constructfirst person common singular
sîyach — contemplation, complaint, musing The noun of Psalm 55:2 and 142:2, where the psalmist pours out his sîyach before the LORD. It names speech, not merely emotion: she has been saying something all this while, and the abundance of it is what Eli mistook for a stagger.
וְכַעְסִ֖יwə·ḵa‘·sîand griefH3708
√ kaʻaç — vexationConjunctive wawNounmasculine singular constructfirst person common singular
kaʻaç — vexation, provocation The word that ties v. 16 back to v. 6, where her rival “provoked her sore.” Her defence before the priest quietly names the true cause without naming the person — and Henry marks that restraint: she “did not retort the charge.”
17

“Go in peace,” Eli replied, “and may the God of Israel grant the petition you have asked of Him.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

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

Word by word13 · parsed
לְכִ֣יlə·ḵîGoH1980
√ hâlak — to walk (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbQalImperativefeminine singular
לְשָׁל֑וֹםlə·šā·lō·wmin peaceH7965
√ shâlôwm — safe, iPreposition-lNounmasculine singular
shâlôwm — safe, whole, at peace Not the absence of trouble but wholeness restored. ⚙ The word is a verdict as much as a farewell: the man who a moment ago reckoned her a drunk now sends her toward wholeness. Nothing about her situation has changed — she is still barren when she walks away — and verse 18 says her face changed anyway.
עֵלִ֛י‘ê·lîEliH5941
√ ʻÊlîy — Eli, an Israelite highpriestNounpropermasculine singular
וַיֹּ֖אמֶרway·yō·mer. . .H559
√ ʼâmar — to say (used with great latitude)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
וַיַּ֧עַןway·ya·‘anrepliedH6030
√ ʻânâh — properly, to eye or (generally) to heed, iConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
וֵאלֹהֵ֣יwê·lō·hêand may the GodH430
√ ʼĕlôhîym — gods in the ordinary senseConjunctive wawNounmasculine plural construct
ʼĕlôhîym — God (plural of majesty, here construct) The title-shift from Hannah's YHWH Tsebaoth to Eli's ʼĕlôhê Yisrāʼêl is the priest doing his office: he speaks for the covenant nation to a member of it.
יִשְׂרָאֵ֗לyiś·rā·’êlof IsraelH3478
√ Yisrâʼêl — Jisrael, a symbolical name of JacobNounpropermasculine singular
יִתֵּן֙yit·têngrantH5414
√ nâthan — to give, used with greatest latitude of application (put, make, etcVerbQalImperfectthird person masculine singular
nâthan — to give (imperfect: wish or future) The pivotal ambiguity of the verse, and the commentators split down the middle over it. ⚙ We do not resolve it. What can be said is that the same verb carried Hannah's vow (“Thou givest… I will give him”), so the priest's word, whatever its mood, uses her own vocabulary of giving back.
אֶת־’eṯ-H853
√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker
שֵׁ֣לָתֵ֔ךְšê·lā·ṯêḵthe petitionH7596
√ shᵉʼêlâh — a petitionNounfeminine singular constructsecond person feminine singular
shᵉʼêlâh — a petition, a thing asked With shâʼal in the same breath. The root will be pressed into a proper name at 1 Samuel 1:20, where the child is called Samuel “because I asked him of the LORD” — an etymology that works from the sense of shâʼal, not from the letters of Shᵉmûʼêl. The narrative knows what it is doing with the root; the note simply records that the naming and the priest's blessing share it.
אֲשֶׁ֥ר’ă·šerH834
√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative
שָׁאַ֖לְתְּšā·’altyou have askedH7592
√ shâʼal — to inquireVerbQalPerfectsecond person feminine singular
מֵעִמּֽוֹ׃mê·‘im·mōwof HimH5973
√ ʻim — adverb or preposition, with (iPreposition-mthird person masculine singular
ʻim — with “From with Him” — the petition is not merely addressed to God but drawn out of His possession. A small preposition insisting the child, if he comes, comes from God's side of the transaction.
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

Word by word14 · parsed
שִׁפְחָתְךָ֛šip̄·ḥā·ṯə·ḵāMay your maidservantH8198
√ shiphchâh — a female slave (as a member of the household)Nounfeminine singular constructsecond person masculine singular
shiphchâh — a female slave (as a member of the household) ⚙ The change from ʼâmâh (vv. 11, 16) to shiphchâh here is the verse's quietest detail. Both words mean a bondwoman; shiphchâh is the more domestic, household term. Addressed now to a man rather than to God, her self-designation shifts with the addressee — deference to the priest, and something more absolute to the King.
תִּמְצָ֧אtim·ṣāfindH4672
√ mâtsâʼ — properly, to come forth to, iVerbQalImperfectthird person feminine singular
חֵ֖ןḥênfavorH2580
√ chên — graciousness, iNounmasculine singular
chên — graciousness, favour The Old Testament's grace-word, the noun behind Noah's deliverance (Genesis 6:8) and Esther's petitions. Geneva reads Hannah's request as a request for prayer: “That is, pray to the Lord for me.” ⚙ Note that she asks the man for chên only after the LORD has been asked for a son — the order is not accidental.
בְּעֵינֶ֑יךָbə·‘ê·ne·ḵāwith youH5869
√ ʻayin — an eye (literally or figuratively)Preposition-bNouncdcsecond person masculine singular
וַתֹּ֕אמֶרwat·tō·mersaid HannahH559
√ ʼâmar — to say (used with great latitude)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person feminine singular
הָאִשָּׁ֤הhā·’iš·šāhThen [she]H802
√ ʼishshâh — a womanArticleNounfeminine singular
וַתֵּ֨לֶךְwat·tê·leḵwentH1980
√ hâlak — to walk (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person feminine singular
hâlak — to walk, to go The same root as Eli's imperative lᵉḵî in v. 17. He said “go”; she goes. The narrative registers obedience to a blessing as though it were obedience to a command.
לְדַרְכָּהּ֙lə·ḏar·kāhon her wayH1870
√ derek — a road (as trodden)Preposition-lNouncommon singular constructthird person feminine singular
וַתֹּאכַ֔לwat·tō·ḵaland she began to eatH398
√ ʼâkal — to eat (literally or figuratively)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person feminine singular
וּפָנֶ֥יהָū·p̄ā·ne·hāand her faceH6440
√ pânîym — the face (as the part that turns)Conjunctive wawNounmasculine plural constructthird person feminine singular
pânîym — the face (as the part that turns) The unit's closing noun and one of its structural pillars: she prayed liphnê YHWH (vv. 12, 15), before the face of the LORD, and now her own face is changed. Nothing in her circumstances has moved; she is still childless when she walks away from the doorpost. Ellicott, quoting the Speaker's Commentary, calls it “a beautiful example of the composing influence of prayer.”
לֹא־lō-{was} noH3808
√ lôʼ — not (the simple or absAdverbNegative particle
עֽוֹד׃‘ō·wḏlongerH5750
√ ʻôwd — properly, iteration or continuanceAdverb
הָיוּ־hā·yū-downcastH1961
√ hâyâh — to exist, iVerbQalPerfectthird person common plural
hâyâh — to exist, to be, to become The verb the sentence ends on, with its complement missing. ⚙ Hebrew leaves the blank; we should leave it visible rather than fill it in silently. Something that had been true of her face was no longer true of it, and the text declines to name the thing.
לָ֖הּlāh
Prepositionthird person feminine singular

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.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. She rose from the table — 1:9–1:10

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.

ii. Seed of men, and no razor — 1:11

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.”

iii. Lips staggering, voice unheard — 1:12–1:14

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.”

iv. Not a daughter of worthlessness — 1:15–1:16

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.”

v. Go in peace — and the face that changed — 1:17–1:18

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.”

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ 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.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

“No razor shall go up on his head” — the three-verse vow verbal / quotation — confirmed

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.

“Remember me” — and the LORD remembered her structural / thematic — confirmed

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 same verb, praying and singing: 1:10 and 2:1 structural / thematic — confirmed

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 throne in the doorway and the sentence on Eli's house structural / thematic — confirmed

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.

ταπείνωσις — Hannah's Greek words in Mary's mouth structural / thematic — confirmed

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.

The doorpost, the vow, and the lifelong servant flagged — verify source

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.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The son asked for, given back, and the greater Son who was not withheld novel

⚙ 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 perpetual Nazirite and the forerunner ancient/widely-held

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

The Magnificat's mother and the priest who prophesied without knowing ancient/widely-held

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

Apparatus & Provenance

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:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Keil & Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1860s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

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)