1 Samuel 2:20

20 Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, saying, "God give you children to replace this child you have dedicated to God." Then they would go home.

1 Samuel 2:20 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 2:20

And Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife
Not only the first time they brought Samuel to him, and left him with him; but every year they came to worship, as the Jewish commentators mostly interpret it:

and said, the Lord give thee seed of this woman;
children by her, year after year:

for the loan which is lent to the Lord;
instead of Samuel, who was asked of the Lord and given to him again; and as they were thereby in some measure deprived of him, and could not always enjoy him, and be delighted with him, Eli prayed for them, and gave them his benediction as a priest, that they might be favoured with other children, who might be of delight and service to them when in old age:

and they went unto their own home;
at Ramah, as in ( 1 Samuel 2:11 ) or to his place ^F18, Elkanah's; hence Kimchi concludes that Hannah was of another city originally; but the Targum is,

``to their place;''

and indeed, what was now the place or home of the one, was of the other.

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FOOTNOTES:

F18 (wmwqml) "in locum suum", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Drusius

1 Samuel 2:20 In-Context

18 In the midst of all this, Samuel, a boy dressed in a priestly linen tunic, served God.

19 Additionally, every year his mother would make him a little robe cut to his size and bring it to him when she and her husband came for the annual sacrifice.

20 Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, saying, "God give you children to replace this child you have dedicated to God." Then they would go home.

21 God was most especially kind to Hannah. She had three more sons and two daughters! The boy Samuel stayed at the sanctuary and grew up with God. A Hard Life with Many Tears

22 By this time Eli was very old. He kept getting reports on how his sons were ripping off the people and sleeping with the women who helped out at the sanctuary.