And they rose up in the morning early
Partly for devotion, and partly for the sake of their journey:
and worshipped before the Lord;
went up to the tabernacle, and prayed with their faces towards that part of it, the western part, where stood the ark of the Lord, the symbol of the divine Presence; and when they no doubt gave thanks for all the favours they had received there, and prayed for a safe and prosperous journey home, committing themselves to the care of divine Providence:
and returned, and came to their house to Ramah;
or "Ramatha", the same with Ramathaim, ( 1 Samuel 1:1 ) . Abarbinel thinks that Elkanah had two houses, one at Ramah for Peninnah, and another at Ramatha for Hannah; and that this was Hannah's house, to which they returned and came:
and Elkanah knew Hannah his wife:
cohabited with her as a man with his wife; it is a modest expression of the conjugal act; see ( Genesis 4:1 ) and is observed to show that the conception and birth of Samuel were not in a supernatural way, but in the ordinary way and manner of generation:
and the Lord remembered her;
the prayer she had made to him, opened her womb, as he had before shut it, and gave her power to conceive.