Verse-by-Verse Commentary
The Book of 1 Samuel
Chapter 1: Hannah's Prayer
Israel is at the ragged end of the Judges, and God begins a new chapter not in a palace but in the tears of a barren woman. Hannah pours out her soul before the LORD, vows to give back any son He gives, and God remembers her. From her prayer comes Samuel, the prophet who will anoint Israel's kings. Great things begin where someone will pray.
About This Commentary
This is a verse-by-verse study of 1 Samuel chapter 1. For each section you will find the KJV text, the Hebrew words that sharpen the meaning, plain explanation, and a Gospel Focus. The books of Samuel carry Israel from the chaos of the Judges to the throne of David, and it all begins with one woman's prayer. Every Scripture quotation is from the King James Version.
Setting the Stage
From Chaos to a King
First and Second Samuel were originally one book. They bridge the disorder of the Judges and the rise of the monarchy, following Samuel, then Saul, then David, God's chosen king.
Samuel and Others
Jewish tradition credits Samuel with the early chapters, with the prophets Nathan and Gad recording later events (1 Chronicles 29:29). The human authorship is composite; the book is Scripture.
At Shiloh
The tabernacle stands at Shiloh, where Eli is priest. Into this dim spiritual time, when "the word of the LORD was precious" (1 Samuel 3:1), God raises up a praying woman and a prophet.
God Hears
The name Samuel means "heard of God." The chapter is a testimony that God hears the brokenhearted, remembers the forgotten, and answers the prayer poured out in faith.
A Barren Woman and a Bitter Rival (1 Samuel 1:1-8)
Hannah is loved by her husband but childless, and year after year her rival provokes her to tears. Her sorrow sets the stage for God to act.
Provoked and Weeping
"Now there was a certain man of Ramathaimzophim, of mount Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephrathite: And he had two wives; the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah: and Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children. And this man went up out of his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice unto the LORD of hosts in Shiloh. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the priests of the LORD, were there. And when the time was that Elkanah offered, he gave to Peninnah his wife, and to all her sons and her daughters, portions: But unto Hannah he gave a worthy portion; for he loved Hannah: but the LORD had shut up her womb. And her adversary also provoked her sore, for to make her fret, because the LORD had shut up her womb. And as he did so year by year, when she went up to the house of the LORD, so she provoked her; therefore she wept, and did not eat. Then said Elkanah her husband to her, Hannah, why weepest thou? and why eatest thou not? and why is thy heart grieved? am not I better to thee than ten sons? So Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh, and after they had drunk. Now Eli the priest sat upon a seat by a post of the temple of the LORD."
Hebrew Study
Hannah — channah, "grace" or favor — is barren, while her rival Peninnah has children and uses them as a weapon, provoking Hannah "sore, for to make her fret" (har'imah, הַרְעִמָהּ, from ra'am, "to thunder" -- the same word used of God's own thunder in Job 37:4-5; Peninnah's taunting is pictured as a storm crashing on Hannah year after year). The Hebrew calls Peninnah her tsarah, her "adversary" — a word close to the word for trouble. It is the old grief of the rival wives, Sarah and Hagar, Rachel and Leah, played out again. The favored, loved wife is the empty one, and her emptiness is made sharper by another's cruelty.
Explanation
The text says plainly, twice, that "the LORD had closed her womb." Hannah's pain was real and, in some mystery, within God's hand. Her husband's love, though tender, could not fill the ache. Sometimes God allows a deep emptiness in us that only He can fill, so that we will bring it to Him and not settle for less. Hannah's grief was about to become a doorway.
Gospel Focus
Scripture says twice, plainly, that "the LORD had shut up her womb." Hannah's barrenness was no accident but lay, in some mystery, within God's hand — and God has a pattern of opening the closed wombs of praying women to bring forth the children He has chosen: Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, Hannah, and at last Elisabeth. The grief He allowed was the very soil in which a prophet would grow. What looked like God's absence was God preparing a gift, and Hannah's tears were the beginning of Samuel.
Hannah Pours Out Her Soul (1 Samuel 1:9-18)
At the tabernacle Hannah prays as few pray, silently, from the depths, making a vow to give her son back to the God who would give him.
A Vow and a Whisper
"And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the LORD, and wept sore. And she vowed a vow, and said, O LORD of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the LORD all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head. And it came to pass, as she continued praying before the LORD, that Eli marked her mouth. Now Hannah, she spake in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard: therefore Eli thought she had been drunken. And Eli said unto her, How long wilt thou be drunken? put away thy wine from thee. And Hannah answered and said, No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the LORD. Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial: for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief have I spoken hitherto. Then Eli answered and said, Go in peace: and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of him. And she said, Let thine handmaid find grace in thy sight. So the woman went her way, and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad. And they rose up in the morning early, and worshipped before the LORD, and returned, and came to their house to Ramah: and Elkanah knew Hannah his wife; and the LORD remembered her."
Hebrew Study
"poured out my soul," shaphak nephesh (שָׁפַךְ נֶפֶשׁ). To empty out the whole inner self, like emptying a vessel. Hannah held nothing back from God. And she "spake in her heart; only her lips moved" (verse 13): real prayer is not measured by volume but by the heart poured out.
"no razor shall come upon his head." This is the vow of a Nazirite (Numbers 6), setting the child apart wholly to God. Hannah asks for a son not to keep, but to give.
Explanation
Hannah's prayer is so intense and so silent that it is misunderstood. She prays "in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard," and old Eli the priest, watching, mistakes her anguish for drunkenness and rebukes her. She answers with quiet dignity: "I have poured out my soul before the LORD." Eli blesses her, and then comes the turn that shows real faith — before any answer arrives, "her countenance was no more sad." She had cast her burden on God and left it there, comforted by the asking itself.
Gospel Focus
Hannah shows us how to pray in our deepest pain: come to the LORD, tell Him everything, and pour out your soul before Him. "Pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us" (Psalm 62:8). Eli mistook her silent agony for drunkenness, a reminder that the most real prayers are sometimes the least visible. And notice the surrender in her vow: she offers back to God the very thing she is begging Him for. That is the heart God loves to answer, one that holds His gifts with open hands.
God Remembers; Samuel Is Given Back (1 Samuel 1:19-28)
God answers, a son is born, and Hannah keeps her word, bringing the child she longed for and lending him to the LORD for life.
Asked of the LORD, Lent to the LORD
"Wherefore it came to pass, when the time was come about after Hannah had conceived, that she bare a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him of the LORD. And the man Elkanah, and all his house, went up to offer unto the LORD the yearly sacrifice, and his vow. But Hannah went not up; for she said unto her husband, I will not go up until the child be weaned, and then I will bring him, that he may appear before the LORD, and there abide for ever. And Elkanah her husband said unto her, Do what seemeth thee good; tarry until thou have weaned him; only the LORD establish his word. So the woman abode, and gave her son suck until she weaned him. And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, with three bullocks, and one ephah of flour, and a bottle of wine, and brought him unto the house of the LORD in Shiloh: and the child was young. And they slew a bullock, and brought the child to Eli. And she said, Oh my lord, as thy soul liveth, my lord, I am the woman that stood by thee here, praying unto the LORD. For this child I prayed; and the LORD hath given me my petition which I asked of him: Therefore also I have lent him to the LORD; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the LORD. And he worshipped the LORD there."
Hebrew Study
"Samuel," Shemuel (שְׁמוּאֵל). Hannah ties the name to her asking; Samuel is the child "asked of God," a living answer to prayer. She says as much in the naming itself, "Because I have asked him of the LORD."
"asked," sha'al (שָׁאַל). This is the verb standing behind Hannah's explanation of the name, the word for the petition she brought to Shiloh and for the child God gave in answer. She "lent" (from the same root, sha'al) him back to the LORD: the one she asked for, she now returns.
Explanation
Hannah keeps her costly vow. When the boy is weaned, she brings little Samuel to the house of the LORD and gives back the very child she had begged for: "as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the LORD." It is the hardest kind of gratitude — to return the gift to the Giver, to open the hand that had ached to be filled. The son asked of God becomes the son given to God, and in that surrender Hannah's answered prayer becomes Israel's prophet.
Gospel Focus
"The LORD remembered her." When God remembers, He acts. Hannah receives her son and immediately gives him back, weaning him and bringing him to serve God at Shiloh. What she consecrated, God used mightily: Samuel became the prophet who would anoint both Saul and David and turn the nation back to God. There is a pattern here for every parent and every believer: our truest treasures are the ones we give back to God. And Hannah's joy will overflow in the next chapter into a song that Mary would echo when she carried the Lord (1 Samuel 2:1-10; Luke 1:46-55). God still begins great things in the prayers of the humble.
Chapter 1 in Review
1 Samuel 1 opens the story of Israel's kings with a barren woman's tears. Provoked and grieved, Hannah pours out her soul before the LORD, vowing to give back any son He grants. God remembers her, Samuel is born, and Hannah keeps her word, lending the child to the LORD for life. From that surrendered prayer will come the prophet who anoints kings.
For the Apostolic reader, this chapter is a school of prayer and surrender. God hears the brokenhearted and answers the soul poured out before Him. And the deepest blessings are the ones we hold with open hands, given back to God to be used for His purposes. Great movements of God often begin quietly, in the prayer of someone the world overlooks.
- God hears the brokenhearted; the name Samuel means "heard of God."
- Real prayer pours out the soul before God, seen or unseen by others.
- Hannah asked for a son in order to give him back; open-handed surrender moves God.
- God begins great works quietly, often through the prayers of the humble.
Questions for Reflection
- Hannah brought her deepest pain to God. What ache have you been carrying that you need to pour out before Him?
- She gave back the very gift she prayed for. What is God asking you to hold with open hands?
- Eli misjudged Hannah's silent prayer. Do you measure prayer by feeling and volume, or by a heart truly poured out?
References & Sources
Scripture is quoted from the King James Version (KJV). The Hebrew terms are standard and can be checked in any Hebrew lexicon. Supporting passages are listed so every claim can be verified in its own setting. If anything here does not look right, a verse, a reference, or a wording, please tell us at info@FruitBearers.net. Thank you for helping us keep Bible Learning error free.
- Hannah's grief, prayer, and vow: 1 Samuel 1:1-18; Numbers 6:1-5 (the Nazirite vow).
- Pouring out the soul in prayer: 1 Samuel 1:15; Psalm 62:8; Philippians 4:6-7.
- God remembers; Samuel born and given back: 1 Samuel 1:19-28.
- Hannah's song echoed by Mary: 1 Samuel 2:1-10; Luke 1:46-55.
- Authorship note: 1 Chronicles 29:29 (Samuel, Nathan, and Gad).