12 As she continued praying before the LORD, Eli observed her mouth.
Hannah was praying silently; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard; therefore Eli thought she was drunk.
So Eli said to her, “How long will you make a drunken spectacle of yourself ? Put away your wine.”
But Hannah answered, “No, my lord, I am a woman deeply troubled; I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the LORD.
Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation all this time.”
Then Eli answered, “Go in peace; the God of Israel grant the petition you have made to him.”
And she said, “Let your servant find favor in your sight.” Then the woman went to her quarters,[6 (#litres_trial_promo)] ate and drank with her husband,[7 (#litres_trial_promo)] and her countenance was sad no longer.[8 (#litres_trial_promo)]
19 They rose early in the morning and worshiped before the LORD; then they went back to their house at Ramah. Elkanah knew his wife Hannah, and the LORD remembered her.
In due time Hannah conceived and bore a son. She named him Samuel, for she said, “I have asked him of the LORD.”
21 The man Elkanah and all his household went up to offer to the LORD the yearly sacrifice, and to pay his vow.
But Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, “As soon as the child is weaned, I will bring him, that he may appear in the presence of the LORD, and remain there forever; I will offer him as a nazirite[9 (#litres_trial_promo)] for all time.”[10 (#litres_trial_promo)]
Her husband Elkanah said to her, “Do what seems best to you, wait until you have weaned him; only—may the LORD establish his word.”[11 (#litres_trial_promo)] So the woman remained and nursed her son, until she weaned him.
When she had weaned him, she took him up with her, along with a three-year-old bull,[12 (#litres_trial_promo)] an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine. She brought him to the house of the LORD at Shiloh; and the child was young.
Then they slaughtered the bull, and they brought the child to Eli.
And she said, “Oh, my lord! As you live, my lord, I am the woman who was standing here in your presence, praying to the LORD.
For this child I prayed; and the LORD has granted me the petition that I made to him.
Therefore I have lent him to the LORD; as long as he lives, he is given to the LORD.”
She left him there for[13 (#litres_trial_promo)] the LORD.
2 Hannah prayed and said,
“My heart exults in the LORD;
my strength is exalted in my God.[14 (#litres_trial_promo)]
My mouth derides my enemies,
because I rejoice in my[15 (#litres_trial_promo)] victory.
DIRECTING OUR PRAISE
I find it easiest to understand the Christian doctrine that “Heaven” is a state in which angels now, and men hereafter, are perpetually employed in praising God....To see what the doctrine really means, we must suppose ourselves to be in perfect love with God—drunk with, drowned in, dissolved by, the delight which, far from remaining pent up within ourselves as incommunicable, hence hardly tolerable, bliss, flows out from us incessantly again in effortless and perfect expression, our joy no more separable from the praise in which it liberates and utters itself than the brightness a mirror receives is separable from the brightness it sheds.
—from Reflections on the Psalms
For reflection
1 Samuel 2:1–10
“There is no Holy One like the LORD,
no one besides you;
there is no Rock like our God.
Talk no more so very proudly,
let not arrogance come from your mouth;
for the LORD is a God of knowledge,
and by him actions are weighed.
The bows of the mighty are broken,
but the feeble gird on strength.
Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread,
but those who were hungry are fat with spoil.
The barren has borne seven,
but she who has many children is forlorn.
The LORD kills and brings to life;
he brings down to Sheol and raises up.
The LORD makes poor and makes rich;
he brings low, he also exalts.
He raises up the poor from the dust;
he lifts the needy from the ash heap,
to make them sit with princes
and inherit a seat of honor.[16 (#litres_trial_promo)]
For the pillars of the earth are the LORD’s,
