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Eli then replied: “ Go in peace, and the God of Israel give (grant) thy request ( שׁלתך for שׁאלתך ), which thou hast asked of Him.” This word of the high priest was not a prediction, but a pious wish, which God in His grace most gloriously fulfilled.

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Hannah then went her way, saying, “ Let thine handmaid find grace in thine eyes,” i.e., let me be honoured with thy favour and thine intercession, and was strengthened and comforted by the word of the high priest, which assured her that her prayer would be heard by God; and she did eat, “ and her countenance was no more,” sc., troubled and sad, as it had been before. This may be readily supplied from the context, through which the word countenance ( פּנים ) acquires the sense of a troubled countenance, as in Job 9:27.

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Elkanah expressed his approval of Hannah's decision, and added, “ only the Lord establish His word,” i.e., fulfil it. By “His word” we are not to understand some direct revelation from God respecting the birth and destination of Samuel, as the Rabbins suppose, but in all probability the word of Eli the high priest to Hannah, “The God of Israel grant thy petition” (1 Samuel 1:17), which might be regarded by the parents of Samuel after his birth as a promise from Jehovah himself, and therefore might naturally excite the wish and suggest the prayer that the Lord would graciously fulfil the further hopes, which the parents cherished in relation to the son whom they had dedicated to the Lord by a vow. The paraphrase of דּברו in the rendering given by the lxx, τὸ ἐξελθὸν ὲκ τοῦ στόματός σου , is the subjective view of the translator himself, and does not warrant an emendation of the original text.

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