1 Samuel 1:20

20 And in due time Hannah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Samuel, for she said, "I have asked for him from the LORD."^[a]

1 Samuel 1:20 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 1:20

Wherefore it came to pass, when the time was come about, after
Hannah had conceived
Or, "at the revolutions of days" ^F2; at the end of a year, of a complete year, as Ben Melech, from their return from Shiloh; for it might be some time after their return that she conceived; or rather the sense is, that at nine months' end, the usual time of a woman's going with child from her conception, which is the date here given:

that she bare a son:
was brought to bed of a son:

and called his name Samuel, [saying], because I have asked him of the
Lord;
one would think rather his name should have been Saul, for the reason given; but, as Ben Gersom observes, givers of names are not always grammatically strict and critical in them, or in the etymology of them, as in the names of Reuben and Noah, in which he instances; and this may be the rather overlooked in a woman, than in a man of learning. According to Kimchi, it is as if it was Saulmeel; that is, "asked of God", and by contraction Samuel; but Hillerus ^F3 gives a better account of this name, and takes it to be composed of Saul-mul-el, "asked before God", "in the sight of God", "before the ark of God". This name Hannah gave her son (for sometimes the father, and sometimes the mother, gave the name) in memory of the wonderful favour and goodness of God in granting her request; and to impress her own mind with a sense of the obligation she lay under, to perform her vow, and to engage her son the more readily to give up himself to the service of God, when he reflected on his name, and the reason of it.

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FOOTNOTES:

F2 (Mymyh twpqtl) "in revolutionibus dierum", Montanus; so Piscator.
F3 Onomastic. Sacr. p. 418, 419, 487.

1 Samuel 1:20 In-Context

18 And she said, "Let your servant find favor in your eyes." Then the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad.

19 They rose early in the morning and worshiped before the LORD; then they went back to their house at Ramah. And Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and the LORD remembered her.

20 And in due time Hannah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Samuel, for she said, "I have asked for him from the LORD."

21 The man Elkanah and all his house went up to offer to the LORD the yearly sacrifice and to pay his vow.

22 But Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, "As soon as the child is weaned, I will bring him, so that he may appear in the presence of the LORD and dwell there forever."

Footnotes

• [a]. Samuel sounds like the Hebrew for heard of God