Hannah’s First Prayer

Elkanah tries to cheer his sorrowful wife by showing that he bears no grudge over her barrenness, but she remains “in bitterness of soul, and … in anguish” (v. 10). In deep distress, she rises after the family completes its ritual feast and flees to the doorway of the tabernacle, to pour out her heart to “the Lord of hosts.” She seems well aware that He has closed her womb (v. 6) and that only He can open it.

Hannah calls upon God to take note of her sorrow. She knows that the sovereign God is also a loving Father, who will hear her prayer with pity and compassion. Therefore, she asks God to ” ‘remember me, and not forget your maidservant.’ ” In other words, she wants God to act on her behalf. And the specific boon she requests is a male child. She then couples a vow to her petition, promising to devote the child to God as a Nazirite. The Nazirite vow usually was taken by Israelites for a set time as a way of showing enhanced devotion to God. It involved abstaining from all fruit of the vine, letting one’s hair grow uncut, and avoiding close contact with dead bodies (Num. 6:1–21). Hannah is promising that any male child God might give her will live his life in this increased mode of devotion. She is not asking God to help her begin to even the score with Peninnah, and she is not trying to bribe God by promising to give Him her baby. It appears her burden is to raise godly children so as to build God’s kingdom.

The High Priest Eli is sitting nearby. As he observes Hannah praying silently but moving her lips, he jumps to the conclusion that she is drunk! Perhaps it is not uncommon for drunk and wanton women to appear at the tabernacle in this degenerate time, but it seems the high priest of Israel would recognize fervent prayer. He rebukes Hannah, but she gently explains that she has poured out her soul to God. To his credit, Eli implicitly acknowledges his error by urging her to ” ‘Go in peace.’ ” Then, in his authority as high priest, he blesses her and pronounces a benediction, asking that God will grant her petition.

Having left her burden with God, Hannah is now able to eat and her face is no longer sad. “She had prayed for herself, and Eli had prayed for her; and she believed that God would either give her the mercy she had prayed for or make up the want of it to her some other way,” Matthew Henry writes.