Chapter 1

Elkanah has two wives.  One, Hannah, has no children.  Elkanah goes to worship once a year in Shiloh where Eli, Hophni, and Phinehas were priests.  So this is set near the end of the time of the judges, but still not all that long after Joshua dies. 

((MSB says it is set from 1105 to 971 BC, from the birth of Samuel to the last words of David.  135 years.  The book was written much later, likely before the Babylonian exile, but after the dividing of the kingdom.  The author is unknown.  Much more info on this in the MSB intro to the chapter.))

2022 - How extraordinarily often do we see this theme repeated?  A woman who has no children gets blessed by God.  And it is not just that her prayer for a child is answered, but the child is a child with some special service to God.  What a good study to see how many times this was the case.

Elkanah's other wife provokes Hannah every year at the tabernacle.  Elkanah loves Hannah.  This may explain a lot of the provocation.  The other wife is jealous, but has children, and rubs this in Hannah's face. 

Hannah prays that if God will give her a son, she will dedicate him to God all his life, and a razor will never touch his head. 

2022 - I had never noticed that no razor would touch his head.  What must he have looked like as he neared death?

2024 - So Samuel was a Nazirite, just like Samson.  It might be interesting to do a compare and contrast between these two men.  In both cases, the mother was conisdered barren.  An angel appears to Samson's mom to tell her she is going to have a son.  When Samson's birth was announced, his mother was told not to drink while she was pregnant, and that Samson wouldn't drink or cut his hair for his whole life.  In Samuel's case, his mother made the promise as part of her bargain. It was the high priest Eli that who sort of said that Hannah's petition would be granted.  Samson was raised by his parents, Samuel by the High priest and that from a very early age. 

Eli thinks she's drunk, but on learning otherwise, he asks God to grant her prayer.  Hannah is then at peace. 

Hannah has a son, and once he is weaned, she takes him to Eli and leaves him to serve God in the tabernacle all his life.