The Story

There was a man named Elkanah who had a wife named Hannah, and Hannah had no children. That made her heart very sad, for she longed for a baby of her own. Worse, the other wife in the house, Peninnah, who had sons and daughters, teased Hannah and made fun of her, year after year, until Hannah would weep and could not eat. Her husband loved her and tried to comfort her, but the sadness stayed.

Every year the family travelled up to Shiloh, where God's house stood, to worship and offer sacrifices. One year, after the meal, Hannah slipped away by herself to pray. She stood near a post of the temple, and there she "prayed unto the LORD, and wept sore". She prayed in her heart, out of deep sorrow, and she made God a promise: if He would look on her sadness, remember her, and give her a son, "then I will give him unto the LORD all the days of his life" — the boy would belong to God for ever, to serve in God's house.

As she prayed on and on, her lips moved, but no sound came out — she was praying silently, in her heart. Eli the priest was sitting nearby watching her, and he misunderstood: he thought she had been drinking wine! When he spoke sharply to her, Hannah answered him gently and humbly. She explained that she was not wicked or drunk at all: "have poured out my soul before the LORD" — she had been pouring out all her sorrow to God, like water out of a jug. Then Eli's heart softened, and he blessed her: "Go in peace: and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of him". Hannah went away, ate her food — and her face was no longer sad. Nothing had changed yet, but she believed God had heard her, and peace came before the answer did.

And God had heard. In God's time, Hannah had a baby boy, and she named him Samuel — a name that sounds like asked of God, because she had asked him of the LORD. She cared for him tenderly at home until he was old enough to eat on his own. Then Hannah kept her promise. She took little Samuel up to the house of the LORD at Shiloh, with offerings, and brought him to old Eli. She reminded Eli that she was the very woman who had stood there praying beside him, and she told him the words of our memory verse: for this child she had prayed, and the LORD had given her what she asked. And so Samuel stayed at God's house to serve the LORD, just as his mother had promised: "as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the LORD".