1 Samuel 1:23

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.

And Elkanah her husband said unto her, do what seemeth thee good,.... He spake like a kind and indulgent husband, knowing that she would not thereby break any law of God; and it might be more for her own health, and the health of the child, to stay longer: tarry till thou have weaned him; when he would be more fit for the journey, and to be left behind: only the Lord establish his word; which some understand of the prophecy of Eli that God would grant her request, which being delivered under the direction of the Spirit of God, is called his word; but this was already fulfilled, and established by Hannah's bearing a son: or the word "his" refers not to the Lord, but to Samuel, and so may respect the word which his mother spake concerning him; either when she made her vow, as Abendana, that he should be a perpetual Nazarite, and the Lord's as long as he lived: and so Elkanah wishes that he might have health and grow strong, and be fit for the service of the Lord, and live many years to perform it; or what she had just now said, as Abarbinel, that he should abide in the house of God for ever, or as long as he lived: so the woman abode; at home, while Elkanah and his family went up to Shiloh: and gave her son suck until she weaned him; did not put him out to a wet or dry nurse, but suckled him herself with what nature had provided for his nourishment, as becomes women to do, if their circumstances of health, and the provisions of nature, will admit of it.

1 Samuel 1:23 . Only the Lord establish his word — We do not read of any thing the Lord had spoken about this child: but, perhaps Elkanah looked upon what Eli had said as spoken by God, because he was God’s high-priest. The Hebrew, however, may be rendered with equal propriety, The Lord establish his work; that is, may he perfect what he hath begun, by making the child grow up, and become fit for God’s service, that he may be employed therein and accepted of God. For the word דבר dabar, signifies any matter or thing, as well as word.

23 . his word ] No express promise of a son has been mentioned; Eli’s blessing in 1 Samuel 1:17 can scarcely be understood as such. But Samuel’s birth implied that Hannah’s prayer was heard, and Elkanah prays that it may receive a complete fulfilment. The Sept. reads “The Lord establish that which is gone forth out of thy mouth.” 1 Samuel 1:23

And Elkanah her husband said unto her, Do what seemeth thee good; tarry until thou have weaned him; only the LORD establish his {i} word. So the woman abode, and gave her son suck until she weaned him. (i) Because her prayer took effect, therefore it was called the Lord's promise.

(23) Only the Lord establish his word. —No special word or promise of the Eternal in the case of the infant Samuel is recorded in this history; but there was an ancient Rabbinical tradition that a direct revelation respecting the future destiny of Samuel was made. “The Bath-kol (Daughter of the Voice) went forth, saying, There shall arise a just one, whose name shall be Samuel. Then every mother who bore a son called him Samuel; but when they saw his actions, they said, This is not Samuel. But when this one was born, they said, This is that Samuel, and this is what the Scripture means when it says, ‘The Lord confirmed his word that Samuel may be that just one.’”— Rashi. If we decline to accept the Rabbinical tradition, Bunsen’s simple comment will explain the difficult words of the text, “establish his word”: that is, may the Lord fulfil what He designs with him, and has promised by his birth.

The Lord establish his word; either, first, The word of God made known to them by Eli, above, 1 Samuel 4:17 , which being delivered by God’s high priest, and that in answer to his and his wife’s prayers, he took to be a kind of oracle sent from God. But that word was already fulfilled in the birth of a son. Or, secondly, Some other word or message from God to Elkanah or his wife concerning Samuel; for such revelations were frequent in those ages of the church, and were oft vouchsafed by God, concerning such children as were extraordinary persons, or in a special manner devoted to God; as concerning Isaac, Ge 18 , and Samson, Judges 13:3,4 , and John Baptist, Luke 1:13,14 , &c., and others. And so it might be here, though it were not mentioned before, there being many such things in Scripture omitted in their proper places, which afterwards are expressed or implied upon other occasions. Or rather, thirdly, It may be rendered his matter, or thing, i.e. the business concerning the child, that which thou hast promised or vowed concerning him, that he may grow up, and be accepted and employed by God in his service; and that he, when he is fully grown, may not break thy vow, but confirm it.

Elkanah expressed his approval of Hannah's decision, and added, "only the Lord establish His word," i.e., fulfil it. By "His word" we are not to understand some direct revelation from God respecting the birth and destination of Samuel, as the Rabbins suppose, but in all probability the word of Eli the high priest to Hannah, "The God of Israel grant thy petition" ( 1 Samuel 1:17 ), which might be regarded by the parents of Samuel after his birth as a promise from Jehovah himself, and therefore might naturally excite the wish and suggest the prayer that the Lord would graciously fulfil the further hopes, which the parents cherished in relation to the son whom they had dedicated to the Lord by a vow. The paraphrase of דּברו in the rendering given by the lxx, τὸ ἐξελθὸν ὲκ τοῦ στόματός σου, is the subjective view of the translator himself, and does not warrant an emendation of the original text.

[Bible] 1:18. And she said: Would to God thy handmaid may find grace in thy eyes. So the woman went on her way, and ate, and her countenance was no more changed. 1:19. And they rose in the morning, and worshipped before the Lord: and they returned, and came into their house at Ramatha. And Elcana knew Anna his wife: And the Lord remembered her. 1:20. And it came to pass when the time was come about, Anna conceived and bore a son, and called his name Samuel: because she had asked him of the Lord. Samuel... This name imports, asked of God. 1:21. And Elcana, her husband, went up, and all his house, to offer to the Lord the solemn sacrifice, and his vow. 1:22. But Anna went not up: for she said to her husband: I will not go till the child be weaned, and till I may carry him, that he may appear before the Lord, and may abide always there. 1:23. And Elcana, her husband, said to her: Do what seemeth good to thee, and stay till thou wean him: and I pray that the Lord may fulfil his word. So the woman staid at home, and gave her son suck, till she weaned him. 1:24. And after she had weaned him, she carried him with her, with three calves, and three bushels of flour, and a bottle of wine, and she brought him to the house of the Lord in Silo. Now the child was as yet very young: 1:25. And they immolated a calf, and offered the child to Heli. 1:26. And Anna said: I beseech thee, my lord, as thy soul liveth, my lord: I am that woman, who stood before thee here praying to the Lord. 1:27. For this child did I pray, and the Lord hath granted me my petition, which I asked of him. 1:28. Therefore I also have lent him to the Lord all the days of his life, he shall be lent to the Lord. And they adored the Lord there. And Anna prayed, and said: The canticle of Anna. The wickedness of the sons of Heli: for which they are not duly corrected by their father. A prophecy against the house of Heli.

2. That the compiler was not contemporary with the facts he narrates. And, 3. That both the author and time in which he compiled his history, though comparatively more recent than the facts themselves, are nevertheless both uncertain. Some account of Elkanah and his two wives, Peninnah and Hannah, 1 Samuel 1:1, 1 Samuel 1:2. His annual worship at Shiloh and the portions he gave at such times to his wives, 1 Samuel 1:3-5. Hannah, being barren, is reproached by Peninnah, especially in their going up to Shiloh; at which she is sorely grieved, 1 Samuel 1:6, 1 Samuel 1:7. Elkanah comforts her, 1 Samuel 1:8. Her prayer and vow in the temple, that if God would give her a son, she would consecrate him to His service, 1 Samuel 1:9-11. Eli, the high priest, indistinctly hearing her pray, charges her with being drunk, 1 Samuel 1:12-14. Her defense of her conduct, 1 Samuel 1:15, 1 Samuel 1:16. Eli, undeceived, blesses her; on which she takes courage, 1 Samuel 1:17, 1 Samuel 1:18. Hannah and Elkanah return home; she conceives, bears a son, and calls him Samuel, 1 Samuel 1:19, 1 Samuel 1:20. Elkanah and his family go again to Shiloh to worship; but Hannah stays at home to nurse her child, purposing, as soon as he is weaned, to go and offer him to the Lord, according to her vow, 1 Samuel 1:21-23. When weaned, she takes him to Shiloh, presents hear child to Eli to be consecrated to the Lord, and offers three bullocks, an ephah of flour, and a bottle of wine, for his consecration, 1 Samuel 1:24-28.