1 Samuel 1:15 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
1 Samuel 1:15
And Hannah answered and said, No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the LORD.
an intoxicant · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular absolute
out
וָאֶשְׁפֹּ֥ךְva.'esh.Pokh
H8210
to spill forth (blood · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 1st person common singular
soul
נַפְשִׁ֖יnaf.Shi
H5315
properly · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix
before
לִפְנֵ֥יlif.Nei
H6440
the face (as the part that turns) · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct
LORD
יְהוָֽהYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
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).
Cross-references
Psalms 62:8 Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah.
Lamentations 2:19 Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands…
Psalms 42:4 When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the vo…
Psalms 142:2-3 I poured out my complaint before him; I shewed before him my trouble.
Psalms 143:6 I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land. Selah.
Job 30:16 And now my soul is poured out upon me; the days of affliction have taken hold upon me.
Proverbs 15:1 A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.
Proverbs 25:15 By long forbearing is a prince persuaded, and a soft tongue breaketh the bone.
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 1:15
I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink - Neither wine nor inebriating drink has been poured out unto me; but I have poured out my soul unto the Lord. There is a great deal of delicacy and point in this vindication.
John Gill on 1 Samuel 1:15
And Hannah answered and said, no, my lord,.... That is not my case, you have greatly mistaken it; she answered with great mildness and meekness, without falling into a passion at such a scandalous imputation upon her, and with great respect and reverence to Eli, suitable to his office; so in later times the high priest used to be addressed after this manner, particularly on the day of atonement, "Lord high priest", do so and so (x); indeed these words of Hannah are interpreted as not so very respectful, as if the sense was, not a lord art thou in this matter; nor does the Holy Ghost dwell upon thee (y); which thou hast sufficiently shown, or thou wouldest never have suspected me of drunkenne…
The Church Fathers
30. For she called him Lord, to whom she rendered the ministry of preaching, but in calling him Lord, she denied that she was drunk; so that she might subject herself to the higher order out of humility, and contradict the false accusation with truth. For in calling him Lord, she honored him; and in denying that she was drunk, she showed with sufficient humility what she was not. However, the accusation of drunkenness against the holy Church can be understood in another way. For while she was engaged in the ministry of evangelical preaching, while from the gain of believers she came into great glory among the peoples, the priests of the Jews did not think she was seeking the summit of eternal goods, but desiring the glory of earthly exaltation. Therefore, when she is called drunk, she is rebuked for having an overturned state of mind, for setting aside heavenly things and seeking earthly ones. 31. But she who despised the fleeting goods of the world says: "Not at all, my lord. For I am a woman exceedingly unhappy." As if to say: You think I desire the happiness of this passing world, but I see myself as all the more unhappy, the further I recognize the joys of my happiness to be from here. Because I believe I shall be happy there, here I consider myself greatly unhappy, since I desire no glory at all. Indeed, the holy Church is called a woman on account of her fruitfulness, exceedingly unhappy on account of her fortitude, because she was about to give birth to the world through the word, and she could not perfectly despise the glory of the world unless heavenly love strengthened her with wondrous fortitude; or she was exceedingly unhappy because she grieved not a little over the perdition of her people. The wise Solomon, greatly admiring her, says: "Who shall find a valiant woman?" (Prov. 31:10). In this passage it should also be noted that she does not say "an unhappy woman," but "exceedingly I am." For she was exceedingly unhappy, whom no enticement of the world pleased. Or certainly she declares herself exceedingly unhappy, who remembers that she was expelled from the joys of eternal life through the merit of the first sin, to which she cannot return except through many tribulations of this life. For she would not be exceedingly unhappy if she could have returned to the lost joys of paradise without present tribulation. Hence Paul, showing the inevitable…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
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…
Prayer — Is converse with God; the intercourse of the soul with God, not in contemplation or meditation, but in direct address to him. Prayer may be oral or mental, occasional or constant, ejaculatory or…
Barrenness · .Hannah — .Hannah
Children · .Hannah — .Hannah
Drunkenness · .Hannah — .Hannah
Hannah · Her trials and prayer, and promise — Her trials and prayer, and promise
Meekness · .Hannah — .Hannah
Misjudgment · .Of Hannah — .Of Hannah
Prayer · Is described as: Pouring out the soul — Is described as: Pouring out the soul
Samuel · Miraculous birth of — Miraculous birth of
Sorrow · Of Hannah — Of Hannah
Uncharitableness · .Of Eli toward Hannah — .Of Eli toward Hannah
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).
Hannah answered: "No, my lord, I am a woman of an oppressed spirit. I have not drunk wine and strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord (see Psa 42:5). Do not count thine handmaid for a worthless woman, for I have spoken hitherto out of great sighing and grief." לפני נתן, to set or lay before a person, i.e., generally to give a person up to another; here to place him in thought in the position of another, i.e., to take him for another. שׂיה, meditation, inward movement of the heart, sighing.
Tyndale Open Study Notes on 1 Samuel 1:13-14
Some people might have used the feast times at Shiloh as an occasion to get drunk rather than to worship. Eli mistakenly assumed Hannah was another drunken reveler (cp. Acts 2:13-15).
Rashi on 1 Samuel 1:15
No, my lord. You are not master in this matter. You have revealed that the Holy Spirit is not resting upon you, otherwise you would have known that I am not intoxicated from wine.26Maseches Berachos 31b.
