1 Samuel 1:20

1:19-28 Elkanah and his family had a journey before them, and a family of children to take with them, yet they would not move till they had worshipped God together. Prayer and provender do not hinder a journey. When men are in such haste to set out upon journeys, or to engage in business, that they have not time to worship God, they are likely to proceed without his presence and blessing. Hannah, though she felt a warm regard for the courts of God's house, begged to stay at home. God will have mercy, and not sacrifice. Those who are detained from public ordinances, by the nursing and tending of little children, may take comfort from this instance, and believe, that if they do that duty in a right spirit, God will graciously accept them therein. Hannah presented her child to the Lord with a grateful acknowledgment of his goodness in answer to prayer. Whatever we give to God, it is what we have first asked and received from him. All our gifts to him were first his gifts to us. The child Samuel early showed true piety. Little children should be taught to worship God when very young. Their parents should teach them in it, bring them to it, and put them on doing it as well as they can; God will graciously accept them, and will teach them to do better.

Wherefore it came to pass, when the time was come about, after Hannah had conceived,.... Or, "at the revolutions of days" (b); at the end of a year, of a complete year, as Ben Melech, from their return from Shiloh; for it might be some time after their return that she conceived; or rather the sense is, that at nine months' end, the usual time of a woman's going with child from her conception, which is the date here given: that she bare a son: was brought to bed of a son: and called his name Samuel, saying, because I have asked him of the Lord; one would think rather his name should have been Saul, for the reason given; but, as Ben Gersom observes, givers of names are not always grammatically strict and critical in them, or in the etymology of them, as in the names of Reuben and Noah, in which he instances; and this may be the rather overlooked in a woman, than in a man of learning. According to Kimchi, it is as if it was Saulmeel; that is, "asked of God", and by contraction Samuel; but Hillerus (c) gives a better account of this name, and takes it to be composed of Saul-mul-el, "asked before God", "in the sight of God", "before the ark of God".

This name Hannah gave her son (for sometimes the father, and sometimes the mother, gave the name) in memory of the wonderful favour and goodness of God in granting her request; and to impress her own mind with a sense of the obligation she lay under, to perform her vow, and to engage her son the more readily to give up himself to the service of God, when he reflected on his name, and the reason of it. (b) "in revolutionibus dierum", Montanus; so Piscator. (c) Onomastic. Sacr. p. 418, 419, 487.

20 . Wherefore ] Simply And. to Ramah ] See note on Ramathaim-Zophim in 1 Samuel 1:1 . Samuel ] This name, in Hebrew Shemuel , is familiar to us only in its Latin dress. It was borne by two other persons in the O. T. ( Numbers 34:20 ; 1 Chronicles 7:2 ). Three explanations of it are proposed: ( a ) “Name of God”: ( b ) “Asked of God”: ( c ) “Heard of God”: of which the last is the most probable; compare Ishmael = “God heareth.” Hannah gives the child a name which will be a continual memorial of God’s answer to her prayer. It found a subsequent appropriateness in the fervency and efficacy of his own prayers. 1 Samuel 1:20

(20) And called his name Samuel .—The words translated “because I have asked him of the Lord,” do not explain the meaning of the name “Samuel·” they simply give the reason for his mother so calling him. The name Sh’muel (Samuel) is formed from the Hebrew words Sh’mua El ( a Deo exauditus ) , “heard of God.”

So the sense is, When the usual time from the conception to the birth was past, she brought forth her son. Heb. in or after the revolution, or expiration of some days, Hannah conceived, and in due time bare a son . So the meaning is, That although her husband knew her conjugally at his return, and God was minded of her, and intended in his time to give her his blessing, yet she did not conceive at first, but after some days or time afterwards. And called, i.e. she called, not doubting of her husband’s consent to the name. The names of children were given to them sometimes by their fathers, and sometime by the mothers. See Genesis 4:1,26 5:29 21:3 19:37,38 , &c.

1Sa 1:20. Samuel Born. 20. called his name Samuel—doubtless with her husband's consent. The names of children were given sometimes by the fathers, and sometimes by the mothers (see Ge 4:1, 26; 5:29; 19:37; 21:3); and among the early Hebrews, they were commonly compound names, one part including the name of God.

Samuel's birth, and dedication to the Lord. - 1 Samuel 1:19 , 1 Samuel 1:20 . The next morning Elkanah returned home to Ramah (see at 1 Samuel 1:1 ) with his two wives, having first of all worshipped before the Lord; after which he knew his wife Hannah, and Jehovah remembered her, i.e., heard her prayer. "In the revolution of the days," i.e., of the period of her conception and pregnancy, Hannah conceived and bare a son, whom she called Samuel; "for (she said) I have asked him of the Lord." The name שׁמוּאל (Σαμουήλ, lxx) is not formed from שׁמוּ equals שׁם and אל, name of God (Ges. Thes. p. 1434), but from אל שׁמוּע, heard of God, a Deo exauditus, with an elision of the ע (see Ewald, 275, a., Not. 3); and the words "because I have asked him of the Lord" are not an etymological explanation of the name, but an exposition founded upon the facts. Because Hannah had asked him of Jehovah, she gave him the name, "the God-heard," as a memorial of the hearing of her prayer.