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.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(28) I have lent him to the Lord.—The rendering of the Hebrew here, “I have lent,” and in Exodus 12:36, is false. The translation should run: “Therefore I also make him one asked of the Lord; all the days that he liveth he is asked of the Lord.” The sense is: “The Lord gave him to me, and now I have returned him whom I obtained by prayer to the Lord, as one asked or demanded.”

And he worshipped the Lord there.—“He,” that is, the boy Samuel: thus putting his own child-seal to his mother’s gift of himself to God.

Benson Commentary

1 Samuel 1:28. Therefore I have lent him to the Lord — But not with a purpose to require him again. Whatever we give to the Lord may, upon this account, be said to be lent to him, because, though we may not recall it, yet he will certainly repay it to our unspeakable advantage. As long as he liveth he shall be lent to the Lord — Or, as the words may be properly translated, All the days that he shall be desired for the Lord; that is, as long as God shall think fit to employ him in his own house: which was till he made him a judge, 1 Samuel 7:15. Then he was no longer fixed at Shiloh, but went about the country, to Beth-el, and Gilgal, and Mizpeh; afterward he settled at his own house in Ramah, as we read there, 1 Samuel 1:17. Still, however, he was wholly the Lord’s and lived entirely to him, employing all his powers of body and mind in his service. And he worshipped the Lord there — Not Eli, but young Samuel, who is spoken of in this and the foregoing verse, and who was capable of worshipping the Lord in some sort, at least with external worship. The Vulgate, Syriac, and Arabic, however, translate the words: And they worshipped the Lord.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

1:19-28 Elkanah and his family had a journey before them, and a family of children to take with them, yet they would not move till they had worshipped God together. Prayer and provender do not hinder a journey. When men are in such haste to set out upon journeys, or to engage in business, that they have not time to worship God, they are likely to proceed without his presence and blessing. Hannah, though she felt a warm regard for the courts of God's house, begged to stay at home. God will have mercy, and not sacrifice. Those who are detained from public ordinances, by the nursing and tending of little children, may take comfort from this instance, and believe, that if they do that duty in a right spirit, God will graciously accept them therein. Hannah presented her child to the Lord with a grateful acknowledgment of his goodness in answer to prayer. Whatever we give to God, it is what we have first asked and received from him. All our gifts to him were first his gifts to us. The child Samuel early showed true piety. Little children should be taught to worship God when very young. Their parents should teach them in it, bring them to it, and put them on doing it as well as they can; God will graciously accept them, and will teach them to do better.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

As thy soul liveth - This oath is unique to the Books of Samuel, in which it occurs six times, and to the Books of Kings, in which however, it is found only once. See the note to 1 Samuel 1:11.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

24. three bullocks—The Septuagint renders it "a bullock of three years old"; which is probably the true rendering.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

I have lent him to the Lord, or, given him, &c., i.e. do now give or offer him; for she did not lend him for a time, with a purpose or right to require him again. The words may be rendered thus, And I also asked him, or made myself to ask him. (a usual Hebraism,) for the Lord, i.e. I prayed for this child, not only for myself, and to take away my reproach, but especially that I might have a child to serve and devote to the Lord. And so the following words,

as long as he liveth, are not to be joined with this foregoing clause, but with those which come next after them; and that whole clause may be thus rendered, as a consequent upon the former: And, or therefore all the days in which he is, or shall be, he is or shall be lent or given to the Lord; or, as one begged for the Lord, and for his service, and therefore justly given to him.

He shall be lent, or rendered, or used as one given in my prayer; for this was the condition of my prayer, that he should be the Lord’s.

He worshipped; not Eli, who is not mentioned but 1 Samuel 1:25, and then only passively, not as speaking or doing any thing; nor Elkanah, of whom here is no mention; but young Samuel, who is the subject spoken of in this and the foregoing verse, and who was capable of worshipping God in some sort, at least with external adoration; of which see See Poole on "1 Samuel 1:22". And so the particle

there is emphatical, signifying that hereby he entered himself into the worship and service of God in that place, to which he was devoted by his parents, and now did devote himself.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Therefore also I have lent him to the Lord,.... To be employed in his service, not for a few days, months, or years, but for his whole life. The Targum is,"I have delivered him, that he may minister before the Lord;''as she had received him front him as an answer of prayer, she gave him up to him again according to her vow: as long as he liveth he shall be lent unto the Lord, or as the Targum,"all the days that he lives he shall be ministering before the Lord;''

or "all the days he shall be asked" (or "required") by or for the Lord (e); that is, he shall be lent unto him, and serve him as long as it is desired:

and he worshipped the Lord there; in the tabernacle at the same time; either Elkanah, who with Hannah brought the child to Eli, and now gave thanks to God for giving them the child, and prayed unto him that he might be received into the service of the sanctuary; or else Eli, to whom the child was brought for admittance, who when he heard that Hannah's request was granted, which he had entreated also might be or had declared it would be, bowed his head, and gave thanks to God for it; or rather the child Samuel, as he was taught and trained up, bowed himself before the Lord, and worshipped him in the tabernacle as soon as he was brought into it, though a child; for he only is spoken of in this and the preceding verse; and by some interpreters (f) the name Samuel is supplied; the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions, read in the plural number, "and they worshipped the Lord there": that is, Elkanah and his wife; so Mr. Weemse (g) translates and interprets it.

(e) "Quamdiu" h. e. "expetitus aut requisitur", Peter Martyr; "quoties a Jehova postulatur", Piscator. (f) Junius & Tremellius, Piscator. (g) Observat. Nat. c. 18. p. 77.

Geneva Study Bible

Therefore also I have lent him to the LORD; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the LORD. And he {l} worshipped the LORD there.

(l) Meaning, Eli gave thanks to God for her.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

28. therefore also, &c.] Render, And I on my part have given him to Jehovah as long as he liveth: because he was one asked for Jehovah. The exact translation of the Heb. is doubtful, and the remarkable play upon words in it is lost in translation. But the general sense is clear: ‘Jehovah gave me the child, and I restore him in accordance with my vow.’ The word translated lend occurs elsewhere only in Exodus 12:36, where it means give rather than lend. A loan may be reclaimed at the will of the lender. Hannah’s surrender of Samuel was complete. See 1 Samuel 1:11 and ch. 1 Samuel 2:20.

he worshipped] Who? Not Samuel, who was too young: but Elkanah, as head of the household, worshipped, while Hannah poured out her heart in the hymn which immediately follows. The Sept. however omits the words, and the Vulg. reads “And they worshipped the Lord there.”

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 28. - I have lent him. The word lent spoils the meaning: Hannah really in these two verses uses the same verb four times, though in different conjugations, and the same sense must be maintained throughout. Her words are, "For this child I prayed, and Jehovah hath given me my asking which I asked of him: and I also have given back what was asked to Jehovah; as long as he liveth he is asked for Jehovah." The conjugation translated to give back what was asked literally means to make to ask, and so to give or lend anything asked. The sense here requires the restoration by Hannah of what she had prayed for (comp. Exodus 12:35, 36), but which she had asked not for herself, but that she might devote it to Jehovah's service. At the end of ver. 28 the sing. "he worshipped" is rendered in the pl. by all the versions except the Sept., which omits it. But he, i.e. Elkanah, includes all his household, and it may be correctly translated in the pl., because the sense so requires, without altering the reading of the Hebrew. In the sing. it puts an unnecessary difficulty in the way of the ordinary reader.



1 Samuel 1:28

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

When the boy was presented, his mother made herself known to the high priest as the woman who had previously prayed to the Lord at that place (see 1 Samuel 1:11.), and said, "For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath granted me my request which I asked of Him: therefore I also make him one asked of the Lord all the days that he liveth; he is asked of the Lord." וגם אנכי: I also; et ego vicissim (Cler.). השׁאיל, to let a person ask, to grant his request, to give him what he asks (Exodus 12:36), signifies here to make a person "asked" (שׁאוּל). The meaning to lend, which the lexicons give to the word both here and Exodus 12:36, has no other support than the false rendering of the lxx, and is altogether unsuitable both in the one and the other. Jehovah had not lent the son to Hannah, but had given him (see 1 Samuel 1:11); still less could a man lend his son to the Lord. The last clause of 1 Samuel 1:28, "and he worshipped the Lord there," refers to Elkanah, qui in votum Hannae consenserat, and not to Samuel. On a superficial glance, the plural ישׁתּחווּ, which is found in some Codd., and in the Vulgate, Syriac, and Arabic, appears the more suitable; but when we look more closely at the connection in which the clause stands, we see at once that it does not wind up the foregoing account, but simply introduces the closing act of the transference of Samuel. Consequently the singular is perfectly appropriate; and notwithstanding the fact that the subject is not mentioned, the allusion to Samuel is placed beyond all doubt. When Hannah had given up her son to the high priest, his father Elkanah first of all worshipped before the Lord in the sanctuary, and then Hannah worshipped in the song of praise, which follows in 1 Samuel 2:1-10.