to increase (in whatever respect) · verb, hiphil perfect, 3rd person feminine singular
praying
לְהִתְפַּלֵּ֖לle.hit.pa.Lel
H6419
to judge (officially or mentally) · preposition + verb, hithpael infinitive construct
before
לִפְנֵ֣יlif.Nei
H6440
the face (as the part that turns) · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct
LORD
יְהוָ֑הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
Eli
וְעֵלִ֖יve.'e.Li
H5941
Eli · conjunction + proper noun, a man's name
marked
שֹׁמֵ֥רsho.Mer
H8104
properly · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
mouth
פִּֽיהָPi.ha
H6310
the mouth (as the means of blowing) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
James 5:16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availet…
Luke 11:8-10 I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as…
Luke 18:1 And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;
Ephesians 6:18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
Colossians 4:2 Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving;
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 1:9-18
Elkanah had gently reproved Hannah for her inordinate grief, and here we find the good effect of the reproof.
I. It brought her to her meat. She ate and drank, Sa1 1:9. She did not harden herself in sorrow, nor grow sullen when she was reproved for it; but, when she perceived her husband uneasy that she did not come and eat with them, she cheered up her own spirits as well as she could, and came to table. it is as great a piece of self-denial to control our passions as it is to control our appetites.
II. It brought her to her prayers. It put her upon considering, "Do I well to be angry? Do I well to fret? What good does it do me? Instead of binding the burden thus upon my shoulders, had I no…
Eli marked her mouth--The suspicion of the aged priest seems to indicate that the vice of intemperance was neither uncommon nor confined to one sex in those times of disorder. This mistaken impression was immediately removed, and, in the words, "God grant," or rather, "will grant," was followed by an invocation which, as Hannah regarded it in the light of a prophecy pointing to the accomplishment of her earnest desire, dispelled her sadness, and filled her with confident hope [Sa1 1:18]. The character and services of the expected child were sufficiently important to make his birth a fit subject for prophecy.
Adam Clarke on 1 Samuel 1:11
I will give him unto the Lord - Samuel, as a descendant of the house of Levi, was the Lord's property from twenty-five years of age till fifty; but the vow here implies that he should be consecrated to the Lord from his infancy to his death, and that he should not only act as a Levite, but as a Nazarite, on whose head no razor should pass.
John Gill on 1 Samuel 1:12
And it came to pass, as she continued praying before the Lord,.... Being very earnest and importunate with him to grant her request, and therefore repeated her petition, and prolonged her prayer, being unwilling to let the Lord go, until she had a promise, or some satisfaction, that she should have the thing she liked; some think she continued an hour in prayer:
that Eli marked her mouth; observed the motion of her lips, and no doubt her distorted countenance, and uplifted eyes and hands, but chiefly the former; not knowing what the woman was at, and what could be the meaning of such motions.
The Church Fathers
It came to pass, therefore, when she was multiplying prayers, etc. It happened that, as the Church began to multiply across the world, new emblems of its devotion began to multiply, whose praise comes not from men but from God, so that the priests of the Jews should consider its external manifestations, to see whether it lived in a gentile or Jewish manner. But with Judaism gradually left behind, she rejoiced to follow the mysteries of faith rather, which purify the heart, and pleased invisible Christ with the wisdom of faith.
26. What was it for the holy Church to multiply prayers before the Lord out of desire for giving birth, except to persist in constant prayers for the conversion of the Synagogue? And what was it for the Jewish priesthood to watch her mouth, except to lie in wait against the preaching of the holy Church? For it watched her mouth, because it strove vehemently to criticize the right preaching of the faith. And it is rightly said to have watched her mouth when she was multiplying prayers, because the more it recognized her greater desires in the urgency of her preaching, the more cunningly it strove to harm her. Finally, it would not have watched but would have heeded her mouth, if it had wished to hear the preaching of our faith for the fruit of its own salvation. It follows: (Verse 13.) Now Hannah was speaking in her heart, and only her lips moved, and her voice was not heard at all.
(Moral Exposition) But because we have said these last things about the history, we are not acting amiss if we examine our learning somewhat more carefully in these words of sacred history. If therefore the order of events is sought, she first ate and drank, then had a bitter spirit, prayed to the Lord weeping abundantly, afterward made a vow, and multiplied her prayers. What does the multiplication of Anna's prayers signify, except that perfection of the elect to which the excellent Teacher exhorts us, saying: "Pray without ceasing" (1 Thess. 5:17)? For no one can pray without ceasing except a perfect man; for to pray without ceasing is to always stand before the Creator through the affection of supplication. But he who is still weighed down by the weakness of imperfection does not beseech the Lord without ceasing, because even in the very time of prayer he slips away from His sight through wandering of mind. And rightly the holy woman is said to have made a vow before the multiplication of prayers, because unless someone shows himself entirely heavenly through the rigor of resolution, he is drawn away from the affection of supplication all the more often, as he is turned by the mobility of mind into the whirl of worldly intention, and is not held in the Lord's sight through strong guardianship. But the elect mind will be able to vow itself to heavenly joys through spiritual resolution, if it already knows how to weep abundantly, if through abundance of tears it has already learned to taste the savor of heavenly sweetness, and, occupied in the joy of that inner refreshment of itself, disdains to look upon earthly things. Therefore Anna is openly described as having wept abundantly before her vow, because no one will be able to show himself entirely heavenly by forgetting earthly things, unless, inflamed with great weeping, he knows how to receive the sweetness of intimate delight in the consolation of a mind already dead to the world. And because this consolation of tears is not received in the joy of the soul, unless one first afflicts oneself through the bitterness of compunction, and pierces with the dagger of salutary sorrow whatever lives in oneself from fleeting joy. Anna is reported to have wept first with a bitter spirit, and thus to have been able to weep abundantly. Which Solomon rightly suggests, saying: "The heart that knows the bitterness of…
Dictionary and topics
Hannah — Favour, grace, one of the wives of Elkanah the Levite, and the mother of Samuel (1 Sam. 1; 2). Her home was at Ramathaim-zophim, whence she was wont every year to go to Shiloh, where the tabernacle…
Veil, vail — (1.) Heb. mitpahath (Ruth 3:15; marg., “sheet” or “apron;” R.V., “mantle”). In Isa. 3:22 this word is plural, rendered “wimples;” R.V., “shawls” i.e., wraps. (2.) Massekah (Isa. 25:7; in Isa. 28:20…
Barrenness · .Hannah — .Hannah
Children · .Hannah — .Hannah
Drunkenness · .Hannah — .Hannah
Hannah · Her trials and prayer, and promise — Her trials and prayer, and promise
Samuel · Miraculous birth of — Miraculous birth of
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Keil & Delitzsch on 1 Samuel 1:12-14
But when Hannah prayed much (i.e., a long time) before the Lord, and Eli noticed her mouth, and, as she was praying inwardly, only saw her lips move, but did not hear her voice, he thought she was drunken, and called out to her: "How long dost thou show thyself drunken? put away thy wine from thee," i.e., go away and sleep off thine intoxication (cf. Sa1 25:37). לבּהּ על מדבּרת, lit. speaking to her heart. על is not to be confounded with אל (Gen 24:45), but has the subordinate idea of a comforting address, as in Gen 34:3, etc.
Tyndale Open Study Notes on 1 Samuel 1:11
Hannah’s vow was a promise to give the child back to the Lord as a Nazirite (see Num 6:1-21). Hannah might have hoped that her child would be another Samson (cp. Judg 13), a deliverer of God’s people.
Rashi on 1 Samuel 1:12
Watched her mouth. He waited for her to stop, as Targum Yonoson renders, 'and Eili waited until she stopped.'
Watched. An expression of waiting, as in, "[and his father] kept the matter in mind ]שָׁמַר["24Bereishis 37:11. i.e., waited, [and similarly] "do not wait [תִשְׁמוֹר] for my sin."25Iyov 14:16.
