A Child Given Back

In the doorway of God's house, a woman is praying. Her lips move, but no sound comes out. Tears run down her face. The old priest watching her frowns. He thinks she must be drunk.

This is the time of the judges, before Israel had a king. In the hill country of Ephraim, in a town called Ramathaim, lives a man named Elkanah. He has two wives. One is Peninnah, who has children. The other is Hannah, whom Elkanah loves, but who has no children. Every year, the family travels up to Shiloh, where the tabernacle, the house of the Lord, stands. There the old priest Eli and his two sons serve. At the sacrifice, Elkanah gives portions of meat to Peninnah and all her sons and daughters. To Hannah he gives a special double portion, because he loves her. But the Lord had closed her womb.

Year after year, Peninnah taunts Hannah, poking at her sorrow, until Hannah weeps and will not eat. Elkanah tries to comfort her. Hannah, why are you crying? Why aren't you eating? Why is your heart so sad? Am I not better to you than ten sons? He means it kindly. But it does not touch the ache. So after the meal at Shiloh, Hannah gets up and goes to the house of the Lord. Eli the priest is sitting on his seat by the doorpost. And Hannah, bitter in soul, prays to the Lord and weeps and weeps.

She makes a vow. Lord of hosts, if you will look on the misery of your servant and remember me, and give me a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head. She prays silently, only her lips moving. Eli watches and decides she is drunk. How long will you be drunk? he snaps. Put away your wine. No, my lord, Hannah answers. I am a woman troubled in spirit. I have not been drinking. I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord. Eli's tone changes. Go in peace, he says, and may the God of Israel grant what you have asked. And Hannah goes, and eats, and her face is no longer sad.

Back home in Ramah, the Lord remembers Hannah. She has a son and names him Samuel, saying, because I asked him of the Lord. When the family goes up to Shiloh the next year, Hannah stays home. I will wait until he is weaned, she says, and then I will take him, so he can appear before the Lord and stay there for ever. When Samuel is weaned, she brings him to Shiloh, with a young bull, flour and wine. She finds Eli. Do you remember me, my lord? I am the woman who stood here praying. “For this child I prayed; and the LORD hath given me my petition which I asked of him.” So now I give him back to the Lord. As long as he lives, he is given to the Lord. And they worship the Lord there.

Hannah's promise that no razor would touch her son's head echoes the law of the Nazirite in the book of Numbers. A Nazirite was someone set apart to God by a special vow, and one sign of it was uncut hair. Most Nazirite vows were for a limited time. Hannah dedicates Samuel for his whole life, as Samson's mother had been told to do for Samson. Long hair on a grown man in Israel could be a visible, everyday sign that he belonged to God.

Hannah's story is in First Samuel chapter one. Samuel grew up to be the prophet who anointed David in Bethlehem. Centuries later, another woman in the same line of hope, Mary, would sing a song much like Hannah's, and her son too would belong wholly to God. So here is a question to carry with you. Hannah poured out her heart to God. What would you pour out to him, if you were honest?