1 Samuel 1:22 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
1 Samuel 1:22
But Hannah went not up; for she said unto her husband, I will not go up until the child be weaned, and then I will bring him, that he may appear before the LORD, and there abide for ever.
Channah · conjunction + proper noun, a woman's name
up
עָלָ֑תָה'a.La.tah
H5927
to ascend · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person feminine singular
said
אָמְרָ֣ה'a.me.Rah
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person feminine singular
husband
לְאִישָׁ֗הּle.'i.Shah
H376
a man as an individual or a male person · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine singular
child
הַנַּ֙עַר֙ha.Na.'ar
H5288
(concretely) a boy (as active) · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
weaned
יִגָּמֵ֤לyi.ga.Mel
H1580
to treat a person (well or ill) · verb, niphal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
bring
וַהֲבִאֹתִ֗יוva.ha.vi.'o.Tiv
H935
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential perfect, 1st person common singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
appear
וְנִרְאָה֙ve.nir.'Ah
H7200
to see · conjunction + verb, niphal sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
before
פְּנֵ֣יpe.Nei
H6440
the face (as the part that turns) · noun, common masculine plural construct
LORD
יְהוָ֔הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
abide
וְיָ֥שַׁבve.Ya.shav
H3427
properly · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
for
עַ֣ד'ad
H5704
as far (or long · preposition
ever
עוֹלָֽםo.Lam
H5769
properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
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
1 Samuel 1:11 And she vowed a vow, and said, O LORD of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forge…
1 Samuel 1:28 Therefore also I have lent him to the LORD; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the LORD. And he worshipped the LORD there.
Luke 2:22 And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem, to present him to the…
Leviticus 25:23 The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.
Deuteronomy 16:16 Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened brea…
1 Samuel 2:11 And Elkanah went to Ramah to his house. And the child did minister unto the LORD before Eli the priest.
1 Samuel 2:18 But Samuel ministered before the LORD, being a child, girded with a linen ephod.
1 Samuel 3:1 And the child Samuel ministered unto the LORD before Eli. And the word of the LORD was precious in those days; there was no open vision.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 1:19–end
Here is, I. The return of Elkanah and his family to their own habitation, when the days appointed for the feast were over, Sa1 1:19. Observe how they improved their time at the tabernacle. Every day they were there, even that which was fixed for their journey home, they worshipped God; and they rose up early to do it. It is good to begin the day with God. Let him that is the first have the first. They had a journey before them, and a family of children to take with them, and yet they would not stir till they had worshipped God together. Prayer and provender do not hinder a journey. They had spent several days now in religious worship, and yet they attended once more. We should not be weary o…
But Hannah went not up--Men only were obliged to attend the solemn feasts (Exo 23:17). But Hannah, like other pious women, was in the habit of going, only she deemed it more prudent and becoming to defer her next journey till her son's age would enable her to fulfill her vow.
Adam Clarke on 1 Samuel 1:21
The man Elkanah and all his house - He and the whole of his family, Hannah and her child excepted, who purposed not to go up to Shiloh till her son was old enough to be employed in the Divine service.
And his vow - Probably he had also made some vow to the Lord on the occasion of his wife's prayer and vow; in which, from his love to her. he could not be less interested than herself.
John Gill on 1 Samuel 1:22
But Hannah went not up,.... For women, though they might go if they pleased to the yearly feasts, yet they were not obliged to it; whether she went up at the time for her purification, and for the presenting and redemption of the firstborn, is not certain; some say the Levites were not obliged by that law, the perquisites of it falling to them, and so did not go up; others that she did, though it is not expressed, the Scriptures not relating all facts that were done; though by what follows it looks as if she did not:
for she said unto her husband, I will not go up until the child be weaned: which, according to Jarchi, was at the end of twenty two months; but others say at the end of twenty…
The Church Fathers
41. Infants are weaned when the little ones of Holy Church receive growth both in spiritual learning and in good conduct, and now seek not the plainer things of sacred speech but its deep mysteries. And the weaned infant is led to appear before the sight of the Lord when through the exhortation of preachers anyone who is subject and progressing well is adorned with good works. For he who is led to appear is brought not only to see but also to be seen. For since many will hear from the Lord at the end: "I know you not" (Matt. 25:12), Samuel is said to appear in the sight of the Lord because, being chosen and a humble subject, while he perfectly despises present things, he is in no way rejected when the final Judge arrives. But those whom the world holds fixed in love of itself do not appear in the sight of the Lord. For those who desire to be seen as more exalted in the honor of passing things accomplish this indeed by their pride: that they are never seen as honorable by Him by whom alone they ought to be seen. Hence even the chosen king, placed at the summit of affairs, begs not to be deceived by the flower of the world, saying: "Cast me not away, O Lord, from Your face" (Ps. 51:13). Therefore Anna promises both to wean her son and to lead him to appear before the sight of the Lord, because Holy Church teaches the chosen subjects whom she instructs to perfectly despise present things, and to do good, and to hasten through humility to eternal goods. And it should be noted that he who is said to need to appear in the sight of the Lord is declared to be led from the place of weaning, because clearly it is no small part of the spiritual journey when from what we learn from heavenly teaching we advance to the practice of perfect work. But since one must never cease from the pursuit of the same good work, there follows: (Verse 22) "And that he may appear there continually." 42. For we continually appear there from where we never depart. Therefore to appear continually in the sight of the Lord is to obscure the beauty of good conduct with no shadows of life, because he who falls into no unlawful things never departs from the secret of the divine gaze; and divine goodness regards him as if placed in light, because it does not attend to those shadows of sins which it has condemned in the choice of its examination. Therefore Anna announces that she will not go up to…
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
Child — This word has considerable latitude of meaning in Scripture. Thus Joseph is called a child at the time when he was probably about sixteen years of age (Gen. 37:3); and Benjamin is so called when he…
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…
Children · Weaning of — Weaning of
Dedication · Of Samuel by his mother — Of Samuel by his mother
Hannah · Samuel born to, — Samuel born to,
Samuel · Consecrated to God before his birth — Consecrated to God before his birth
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).
When Elkanah went up again with his family to Shiloh, to present his yearly sacrifice and his vow to the Lord, Hannah said to her husband that she would not go up till she had weaned the boy, and could present him to the Lord, that he might remain there for ever. הימים זבח, the sacrifice of the days, i.e., which he was accustomed to offer on the days when he went up to the sanctuary; really, therefore, the annual sacrifice. It follows from the expression "and his vow," that Elkanah had also vowed a vow to the Lord, in case the beloved Hannah should have a son. The vow referred to the presentation of a sacrifice. And this explains the combination of את־נדרו with לזבּח.
(Note: The lxx add to τ…
until the boy is weaned: Hannah would have nursed Samuel two to four years.
Rashi on 1 Samuel 1:22
When [the boy] will be weaned. At the end of twenty-two (other versions, twenty-four) months, for that is the period for a child to nurse.
And shall remain there forever. Forever in the Levitic sense,33It can also refer to the fifty year period of Yoveil. i.e., fifty years as it is said, "from the age of fifty he shall retire from the work force."34Bamidbar 8:25. Figuring as follows, we determine that Shmuel's lifetime was fifty-two years: Eili judged Yisroel for forty years.35I Shmuel 4:18. On the day of Chana's prayer he was appointed judge.36Above verse 9. By subtracting the year in which Chana conceived Shmuel, there remain thirty-nine years. Shmuel governed Yisroel from the time of Eil…
