Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
To the barren Hannah a son is born from a vow, and is called Samuel, who, weaned by her, is offered and dedicated to God through the hands of Eli the High Priest.
For Samuel in this book is as it were the leader of the chorus and the founder of the Kingdom and of Kings; hence he was an express type of Christ. For first, just as Samuel was born of the barren Hannah, so Christ was born of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Second, Hannah, after the birth of Samuel, sang a Eucharistic Canticle to God; so the Blessed Virgin, after conceiving Christ, sang the Magnificat. Third, Hannah by vow offered Samuel to God; so the Blessed Virgin likewise offered her Jesus. Fourth, Hannah's son was called Samuel, that is, "his name is God"; the Blessed Virgin Mary's Son was called Emmanuel, that is, "God with us" (Matthew 1). Fifth, Samuel was a great and holy prophet; Christ was the holiest and greatest of the Prophets. Sixth, Samuel was the judge and avenger of Israel against the Philistines; Christ was the judge and avenger of all the faithful and Saints, routing demons, death, hell, and all their other enemies. Seventh, Samuel established the kingdom and its first king Saul, then appointed and created David; Christ established a priestly kingdom and a royal priesthood, and made all Christians kings, so that they might rule over their own desires, and thus become citizens, indeed kings, of heaven, according to 1 Peter 2:9: "But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people," etc. Finally, Samuel by all his words and deeds foreshadowed those things which were to be said and done by Christ, just as did the other Judges and Kings. Hence St. Jerome, Epistle 103 to Paulinus: "In the Book of Judges," he says, "as many princes of the people, so many figures of Jesus Christ." Therefore Clement of Alexandria, Book I of the Stromata, calls the Judges and Kings who presided over Israel after Moses "prophets," not because they all prophesied with their lips, but because by their deeds and royal dignity they prefigured Christ who would reign forever. St. Gregory and St. Augustine assert the same, whose words I have cited in the Preface. For the end and aim of the law, as St. Paul says, and of the Prophets and of all Sacred Scripture, is Christ. For He is the king, savior, redeemer of the world; He is our honor, fear, and love; He is our salvation, the center of our heart, our harbor, rest, and satisfaction of our desires; He is our life, glory, happiness, and every good, toward whom therefore, as toward the sun of justice, all Kings, all Patriarchs, all Prophets, all the faithful and Saints -- like little stars begging from Him the light of grace and glory -- look, and prostrate on the ground, laying their crowns at His feet, reverently adore Him (Revelation 4 and 5).
Vulgate Text: 1 Kings (1 Samuel) I:1-28
1. There was a certain man of Ramathaim-Sophim, of mount Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephrathite; 2. and he had two wives, the name of one was Hannah, and the name of the second was Peninnah. And Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children. 3. And this man went up out of his city at the appointed days, to adore and to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts in Shiloh. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, priests of the Lord, were there. 4. And the day came when Elkanah offered sacrifice, and he gave to Peninnah his wife, and to all her sons and her daughters, portions; 5. but to Hannah he gave one portion with a sad countenance, because he loved Hannah, but the Lord had shut up her womb. 6. Her rival also afflicted her, and troubled her exceedingly, insomuch that she upbraided her that the Lord had shut up her womb; 7. and so she did every year, when the time returned that they went up to the temple of the Lord; and so she provoked her. Moreover she wept, and did not eat. 8. Then Elkanah her husband said to her: Hannah, why do you weep? and why do you not eat? and why is your heart grieved? Am I not better to you than ten sons? 9. So Hannah rose up, after she had eaten and drunk in Shiloh. And Eli the priest sitting upon a seat before the posts of the temple of the Lord, 10. as Hannah was in bitterness of soul, she prayed to the Lord, weeping abundantly; 11. and she made a vow, saying:
"O Lord of hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your handmaid, and remember me, and not forget Your handmaid, but will give to Your servant a male child, I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall come upon his head." 12. And it came to pass, as she continued praying before the Lord, that Eli watched her mouth. 13. Now Hannah spoke in her heart, only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard at all. So Eli thought she was drunk, 14. and said to her: "How long will you be drunk? Put away from yourself the wine that makes you drunk." 15. And Hannah answering said: "Not so, my lord; for I am a woman exceedingly unhappy, and have drunk neither wine nor anything that can make one drunk, but I have poured out my soul in the sight of the Lord. 16. Count not your handmaid as one of the daughters of Belial; for out of the abundance of my sorrow and grief I have spoken until now." 17. Then Eli said to her: "Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant you your petition which you have asked of Him." 18. And she said: "Would that your handmaid may find grace in your eyes!" And the woman went her way, and ate, and her countenance was no more changed to different expressions. 19. And they rose in the morning, and worshipped before the Lord; and they returned, and came into their house at Ramah. And Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and the Lord remembered her. 20. And it came to pass when the days had come round, Hannah conceived, and bore a son, and called his name Samuel, because she had asked him of the Lord. 21. And Elkanah her husband went up, and all his house, to offer to the Lord the solemn sacrifice and his vow. 22. But Hannah did not go up; for she said to her husband: "I will not go until the child is weaned, and I may bring him, that he may appear before the Lord, and may abide there continually." 23. And Elkanah her husband said to her: "Do what seems good to you, and stay until you wean him; and I pray that the Lord fulfill His word." So the woman remained and nursed her son until she weaned him. 24. And she brought him with her, after she had weaned him, with three bulls, and three measures of flour, and a bottle of wine, and she brought him to the house of the Lord in Shiloh. Now the child was yet very young; 25. and they slew a bull, and offered the boy to Eli. 26. And Hannah said: "I beseech you, my lord, as your soul lives, my lord, I am that woman who stood before you here praying to the Lord. 27. For this child I prayed, and the Lord granted me my petition, which I asked of Him; 28. therefore I also have lent him to the Lord all the days that he shall be lent to the Lord." And they worshipped the Lord there. And Hannah prayed, and said:
Verse 1: Ramathaim-Sophim and the Homeland of Samuel
Verse 1. There was a certain man (singular, distinguished, outstanding, as it were one among many) of Ramathaim-Sophim. -- The homeland of Elkanah and Samuel was called Ramah, that is "high place," because it was situated on a mountain, and Ramatha, and Ramathaim, that is "two Ramahs": for it is a dual noun, because this city was divided into two parts and had two hills, being situated on a twin-peaked or two-hilled mountain. So Serarius, although Sanchez thinks that Ramathaim is said in the dual of this city because it was close to another Ramah, which was in the tribe of Benjamin, as if these two cities seemed to have coalesced into one body because of their proximity. With the added letter A, the same place is called Arimathea, from which Joseph the noble Decurion, who buried Christ, was a native (Matthew chapter 27), as assert St. Jerome in Hebrew Places, Bede, Angelomus, Rabanus, Hugo, Dionysius, and others.
Moreover, Ramatha or Ramathaim was surnamed Sophim, that is "of the watchers," because in it -- being situated on a high mountain -- there were watchtowers of the city and of the whole region, and in them sentinels of watchers. So Vatablus, Cajetan, Sanchez, and others. St. Jerome (or whoever is the author) in the Questions, Lyranus, and R. Solomon hold that Ramah was a town of watchers, that is, of contemplatives, because Prophets and learned men devoted to the study of Sacred Letters resided there as in an Academy. Hence the Chaldean translates: "There was a certain man of Ramah, from the disciples of the prophets." For Elijah, Elisha, and their disciples dwelt on Carmel and other mountains, partly to flee crowds, partly to devote themselves to God alone in solitude, and partly to better gaze upon heaven from the mountains and aspire to it.
Of mount Ephraim. -- For the tribe of Ephraim dwelt in a high and mountainous place. He adds this because there was another Ramah in the tribe of Benjamin, another in the tribe of Asher, another in the tribe of Naphtali; but this one was situated in the tribe of Ephraim. Indeed Salignac, Adrichomius, and others count five cities or towns whose name was Ramah. For the first was near Tekoa, on the road to Hebron. The second, in Naphtali, near the fortress of Safed. The third, near Sepphoris. The fourth, in Shiloh. The fifth, near Gibeah -- all of which are called Ramah, that is, "high," because they are situated in the mountains.
Hence St. Gregory thinks that Samuel, born in Ramah, was descended from the tribe of Ephraim; but it is certain that he was a native of the tribe of Levi, and thus was descended from Levi through Kohath and Izhar, not through Amram and Aaron, and therefore was a Levite, not a Priest, as is clear from 1 Chronicles chapter 6, verse 33.
You will object: If Samuel was from the tribe of Levi, how was he born in Ramah, which was in the tribe of Ephraim? I respond: the reason is that the tribe of Levi in the division of Canaan did not receive its own allotment, as the other tribes did, but was scattered among them, and thus had its own towns among them, of which Ramah was one. Lyranus gives four reasons for this dispersion in his commentary on Joshua chapter 21: "First, lest the worship of God should seem to belong to only one tribe; second, lest one or two tribes should be too burdened with the support of the Levites; third, because among all nations those who attend to divine worship are supported by the whole people; fourth, because the Levites were bound to teach the people about matters pertaining to divine worship, and they could more easily teach when scattered among all the tribes than when congregated in one."
Abulensis at the same place attacks these reasons of Lyranus, Question VIII, but in vain. Hence it is clear that Samuel, like Elkanah, was a Levite, not a Priest, because he descended from Kohath through Korah, not through Aaron the priest; hence it is said in Psalm 98, verse 6: "Moses and Aaron among His priests, and Samuel among those who call upon His name." Samuel nevertheless, by God's dispensation, performed the office of a priest, and as a priest offered sacrifice to God, as we shall hear in what follows: so Abulensis and others. Hence also Heman and Asaph the singers were sons of Joel, son of Samuel, son of Elkanah, as stated in 1 Chronicles chapter 6, verse 33. But singers were Levites, not Priests. From the cited passage in Chronicles it is likewise clear that the pious Samuel was descended from the impious Korah, whom the earth, splitting open, swallowed alive when he rebelled against Moses (Numbers chapter 16). Thus God brought forth a rose from a thorn.
And his name was Elkanah. -- Elkanah in Hebrew means the same as "the possession of the strong God." Such is a faithful and just man, who, resting in the one God through faith, hope, and charity, becomes Elkanah, that is, God's possession, so that he need fear neither men, nor demons, nor threats, nor torments, nor any death.
The son of Jeroham -- so it must be read with the Roman edition, the Hebrews, the Chaldeans, and the Septuagint. Therefore it is read incorrectly as "Jeroboam" in the Royal Bibles.
An Ephrathite. -- Why is Elkanah called an Ephrathite? Cajetan first responds: because Ephrathite in Hebrew means the same as "august, wealthy, magnificent"; and such was Elkanah. But this explanation is symbolic, not literal, for literally Ephrati, that is "Ephrathite," is a patronymic name, denoting the father or fatherland of Elkanah.
Second, St. Jerome in the Hebrew Questions, Angelomus, Rupert, Hugo, the Gloss, and Dionysius say that Elkanah is called an Ephrathite because he was descended from Ephrath the wife of Caleb (1 Chronicles chapter 2, verse 19), so that Elkanah and Samuel descend through their father from Levi, but through their mother from Caleb and Judah -- just as conversely Christ, their antitype, and the Blessed Virgin His mother descend through their father from Judah, and through their mother from Levi, so that they might have in their lineage both royal and priestly dignity. But this is contradicted by the fact that Scripture customarily gives men their family and name from the father, not the mother, and names them accordingly.
Third, therefore, genuinely, St. Gregory, Bede, Lyranus, Abulensis, Vatablus, and others hold that Elkanah is called an Ephrathite because he was a native of Ramah, which was in the tribe of Ephraim -- not that he was descended from the tribe of Ephraim (for he was from the tribe of Levi, as I said), but that he dwelt in it. Ephrathite, therefore, is the same as Ephraimite, as is clear from Judges chapter 12, verse 5. So the Jews in Acts chapter 2 are called Medes, Persians, Arabs, etc., not because they were born of Median, Persian, or Arabian parents, but because they were Jews born in Media, Persia, and Arabia.
Symbolically, "Ephrathite" in Hebrew means the same as "fruitful." Such was Elkanah, because he produced a most noble fruit, namely Samuel, the most celebrated prophet.
And he had two wives, the name of one was Hannah, and the name of the second was Peninnah. -- This was according to the custom of that age, when polygamy was permitted and customary by God's permission, in order to multiply more quickly and abundantly the seed of Israel, the faithful people. Now the primary wife of Elkanah was Hannah, and the secondary was Peninnah; hence the latter seems to have been married by him not out of concupiscence, but because Hannah was barren and childless, so that he might raise offspring from her -- just as Abraham took Hagar, the handmaid of Sarah his primary wife, with her consent, indeed at her request, so that since she herself was barren, at least from Hagar the handmaid she might give sons to her husband. Peninnah in Hebrew means the same as "pearl"; Hannah means the same as "grace." Fittingly: for Peninnah was adorned with pearls and children, but Hannah was adorned with the grace of God. So also today some women are called Grace: thus recently in Japan that heroic woman who, together with all her sons, steadfastly suffered death for the faith of Christ, was called Grace.
Allegorically, the fertile Peninnah signifies the Synagogue of the Jews, which once abounded with faithful children. The barren Hannah signifies the Church of the Gentiles, which was once barren but through Christ bore all nations to God. So St. Gregory, Rupert, Hugo, Bede, Lyranus, and Dionysius.
Symbolically, Hannah signifies the contemplative life pleasing to God; Peninnah, the active life useful to one's neighbors. So St. Gregory, Hugo, and Dionysius: for Elkanah, that is, the outstanding one who possesses God, should embrace both.
Verse 3: Worship at Shiloh
Verse 3. And this man went up out of his city (Ramah) at the appointed days (of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles, Exodus chapter 23, Deuteronomy chapter 16),
to adore in Shiloh -- where the ark, the altar, and the tabernacle were. For Joshua placed these in Shiloh, because Shiloh was in the tribe of Ephraim, from which Joshua came; hence the ark remained in Shiloh the entire time of Joshua and the Judges, for three hundred years and more, until it was captured by the Philistines (1 Kings chapter 5). Moreover Elkanah is said to have gone up to Shiloh, because although Ramah where he lived was situated on a mountain, nevertheless Shiloh was even higher, indeed the highest place in all Judea, says Adrichomius.
Add: in Scripture, "to ascend" or "to descend" is the same as "to come."
And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there. -- Eli was the first High Priest from the line of Ithamar. For Aaron had two sons, the elder Eleazar and the younger Ithamar; therefore Eleazar, as the elder, succeeded Aaron in the High Priesthood; Phinehas succeeded Eleazar, and so on successively down to Eli. For at that time the descendants of Phinehas were sluggishly administering the High Priesthood, and therefore it was transferred from the family of Eleazar to the family of Ithamar, namely to Eli, and it remained with that family for 120 years, that is, the entire time of Eli, Samuel, Saul, and David, until Solomon removed the High Priesthood from Abiathar, great-grandson of Eli -- because he had conspired with Adonijah, the rival for his kingdom -- and transferred it to Zadok, who was from the family of Eleazar. Again, Eli succeeded Samson and after him was Judge of Israel; therefore he held both offices or positions of leadership, the ecclesiastical and the secular. His deeds were ordinary and contained nothing singular; hence they are omitted by Scripture, just as the deeds of Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon in Judges chapter 12.
Moreover, "Eli" in Hebrew means the same as "upon me," or "my ascension," or "my leaf." Fittingly, because he, being too mild and slow, allowed his sons to dominate him and to live with impunity and impiety, and therefore he together with his sons, like a leaf snatched by the wind, was quickly deprived of both the High Priesthood and his life. Hence "Hophni" in Hebrew means the same as "flying" or "flying away" or "my darkness"; "Phinehas" means the same as "the mouth of one who spares" or "of one who is confident."
Verse 4: Portions of the Sacrifice
Verse 4. And he gave to Peninnah his wife, and to all her sons and her daughters, portions. -- Understand not of garments, as the Hebrews hold according to Angelomus, but of flesh sacrificed to God. So Origen, Angelomus, Lyranus, Abulensis, Vatablus, and others. For although in a holocaust the entire flesh of the victim was burned for God, yet in a peace offering only the fat with the kidneys was burned to God by fire; the remaining flesh went to the offerer, who feasted from it before the tabernacle with his family, and from it, as from a sacred banquet, gave to each one their portion, as is clear from Leviticus chapter 3 and Deuteronomy chapter 12, verse 27.
Note here and imitate the religion and piety of Elkanah, who three times a year went from Ramah with his wives and all his children to Shiloh (which was seven miles distant) and there offered sacrifices to God, and then devoutly ate with his family. Abulensis adds, Question X, that he came more often, but without his wives, and for another reason, namely to perform the Levitical ministry in the tabernacle in his turn, as a Levite.
Verse 5: Hannah's One Portion
Verse 5. But to Hannah he gave one portion with a sad countenance. -- For "sad" the Hebrew has appaim, that is, "faces" or "angers." Hence the Septuagint translate "according to the face"; the Chaldean, "a choice portion"; R. David, "an honorable one," which was of fine appearance and had a beautiful face, that is, appearance. R. Joseph translates "a portion of anger and sadness"; Pagninus, "a portion with anger or fury," because, since he loved Hannah, he was indignant that he could not give her more portions. Following this, our translator rendered it "sad." For the Hebrew appaim signifies both "face" and "anger and sadness," since both passions are especially shown and manifest in the face, and one is connected and akin to the other: for the sad person is angry at the evil that saddens him, and conversely the angry person is saddened by the evil at which he is angry. So in 2 Kings chapter 6, verse 8, where our translator renders "David was saddened," in Hebrew it is "David was angry." And here in verse 18, "face" is taken for "sadness" in the Hebrew.
Pagninus adds: Elkanah gave a portion while prostrate on his face, praying for his barren wife, that God would make her fruitful and bestow offspring upon her, just as Isaac did for Rebecca (Genesis chapter 25, verse 21).
Verse 7: Hannah's Weeping and Fasting
Verse 7. Moreover she wept and did not eat. -- Hannah is said to have eaten, but so little that she seemed not to have eaten, says Lyranus; or rather, at first she ate nothing from grief, but afterwards tasted something at her husband's urging. So St. Gregory, Book I, chapter 2: "She who was afflicted," he says, "refused to eat, but encouraged by her husband, she ate." Philo adds, in his book On Drunkenness, that Hannah abstained from wine and strong drink her entire life, like a Nazarite. By this self-restraint and patience she merited to become the mother of Samuel, the eminent Prophet. For to Peninnah her rival, who slandered and mocked her, she answered nothing, but wept.
Hence St. Chrysostom, Homily 62 to the People: "Tribulation," he says, "is the mother of philosophy (that is, of moral virtue and patience); Hannah, though having a rival, did not pursue her with insults." Beautifully St. Ambrose on Psalm 33, verse 13, citing Lamentations chapter 3, verse 29, concerning Christ suffering: "He shall put his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope," and reading it as: "He shall give his mouth to burial: He shows," he says, "a certain silence beyond the measure of patience, so that he buries, as it were, his own mouth, lest it speak; and blocks it with a kind of rampart of virtue, lest it emit a sound of pain: asserting so great a weight of patience, which hope nourishes, that he buries and encloses the very voice as in a tomb and sepulcher, which no injury can wrest out or arouse."
The same Ambrose, Book II On Duties, chapter 7: "How many insults inflicted by the people did Moses absorb? With what mild speech did he address them after injuries? How did he console them in labors, settle matters by oracles, cherish them with deeds? Rightly was he estimated above all men, so that they could not gaze upon his face."
St. Chrysostom gives a fitting simile for this matter and passage in Homily 11 on 1 Thessalonians: "Do you not see," he says, "in houses, when two doors stand opposite and directly facing each other, and there is a strong wind -- if you close one, the wind can do nothing, and the greater part of its force is cut off? So now also there are two doors: your mouth, and the mouth of the one who abuses and reviles you. If you close yours, you extinguish the entire gust; but if you open it, it cannot be restrained."
Another fitting simile is given by Tertullian in his book On Patience, chapter 8: "Every injury," he says, "whether inflicted by tongue or by hand, when it strikes against patience, will be checked with the same result as a weapon hurled and blunted against a rock of the firmest hardness. For it will fall there, its effort futile and fruitless, and sometimes, rebounding, it will rage against the one who hurled it with a reciprocal force. For the reason someone hurts you is so that you may grieve, because the fruit of the injurer lies in the grief of the injured. Therefore when you overthrow his fruit by not grieving, he himself must grieve at the loss of his fruit."
Verse 8: Elkanah's Consolation
Verse 8. Am I not better to you than ten (that is, many) sons? -- For I am a noble, wealthy, peaceful man who loves you, so that in me you may have every consolation and every good that you could hope for from many sons. The Hebrews relate that Peninnah bore ten sons, who surrounded and adorned Elkanah's table, according to that verse: "Your sons like young olive trees around your table" (Psalm 127, verse 3). And that Elkanah alludes to them here in order to console Hannah, who was barren and groaning at the sight of Peninnah's many sons and mourning her own barrenness. But this is uncertain, for "ten" here is taken to mean "many."
Verse 9: Hannah's Prayer
Verse 9. So Hannah arose after she had eaten, etc.
Verse 10: Hannah's Vow
Verse 10. As Hannah was in bitterness of soul, she prayed to the Lord, weeping abundantly, and made a vow. -- It was noon, says St. Chrysostom in his Homily on Hannah -- that is, after lunch, which everyone makes a time of recreation, but she made it a time of prayer. This the Franciscans and other Religious imitate, who pray and chant psalms immediately after lunch. Hence also St. Jerome, Epistle 7 to Laeta: "Let her eat," he says, "so that immediately after her meal she may be able to read, pray, and chant psalms." And St. Chrysostom, Homily 24 on the Epistle to the Ephesians: "Would you learn," he says, "the vigilance of the soul? Go to Hannah." And Homily 79 to the People: "Hannah could not have prayed unless she had been like those who fast at table, etc. Therefore we must give thanks to God both when approaching the table and when leaving it. For one prepared for this will never fall into drunkenness or insolence, will never burst with gluttony, but having the expectation of prayer imposed as a bridle upon the senses, will partake with due modesty of all that is set before him, and will fill his soul with much blessing, and his body likewise. For a table that begins with prayer and ends with prayer will never fail, but will bring us all good things more abundantly than a fountain."
Again, Hannah prayed while weeping; she armed her prayers with the compunction of her inmost heart and profuse tears, as St. Gregory and Origen observe.
Third, "she made a vow": such should be our prayer; thus it will prevail upon God, and will obtain from Him whatever it asks, as Hannah obtained. Now this vow of Hannah was that she would make her son, if one were given to her, a Nazarite, that is, a Religious of that age, who would not cut his hair, and would not drink wine or strong drink, and this for his entire life, as was said of Samson (Judges 13:3), and who would minister to God in the tabernacle all the days of his life, while the other Levites ministered only in their turns, which by reason of their great number came around slowly. For the Levites, like the Priests, were distributed into their courses, that is, classes.
Moreover Hannah, by vowing to make Samuel a Nazarite, vowed that he would not go to the funerals of his father and mother, and would observe the remaining ceremonies of the Nazarites, says Abulensis, although Cajetan denies this, holding that she vowed Samuel's Nazariteship only with respect to unshorn hair and abstinence from wine and strong drink. I said the same about Samson (Judges chapter 13, verse 5).
Verse 13: Prayer of the Heart
Verse 13. Now Hannah spoke in her heart, only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard at all. -- She was praying with a fervent heart, so that the words reverberated from her heart to her mouth, but so silently and softly that her voice was not heard. Hence St. Chrysostom, Homily 79, extols the fervor of Hannah's prayer: that it was not sounding outwardly but attentive, that it proceeded from a temperate and almost fasting mind, that it was before the doors of the temple, that she bore the insult patiently, etc. Hear Cassian, Conference IX, chapter 26: "Sometimes indeed the mind is hidden within the secret of so deep a silence that the astonishment of a sudden illumination entirely suppresses all sound of voice, and the stunned spirit either restrains all its senses within, or sends them forth, and pours out its desires to God with unutterable groanings. But sometimes it is filled with so great an abundance of compunction and grief that it cannot relieve it otherwise than by the evaporation of tears."
Hence St. Jerome to St. Eustochium: "Be," he says, "a cicada of the night" -- for cicadas at night sing not with a mouth, which they lack, but with their heart and breast, and by the same means take in their food. For as Pliny says, Book 11, chapter 26: "This is the only one among living things that has no mouth. In its place is something pointed, resembling a tongue, and this is in the breast, by which they lap up dew. The breast itself is hollow, and by this they sing."
Hear again Chrysostom, Homily 2 on Hannah: "That is the most powerful prayer," he says, "when voices are carried upward from the depths of the heart; this is especially the mark of a practiced mind -- to perform prayer not by the intensity of voice, but by the fervor of spirit. So also Moses prayed; and though nothing sounded forth from his voice, God nevertheless said, 'Why do you cry out to Me?' Some people hear only this external voice, but God hears even before this those who cry out within. Therefore it is possible that even those who do not cry out may be heard, so that one walking through the marketplace may pray most carefully, and one sitting among friends while doing something quite different may invoke God with a vehement cry."
Hear finally St. Cyprian, in his book On the Lord's Prayer: "Hannah, bearing the type of the Church, prayed to the Lord not with a loud petition, but silently and modestly within the very recesses of her breast. She spoke not with her voice, but with her heart; because she knew that God heard thus," etc.
So Eli thought she was drunk -- that is, inebriated. So Scripture says, because Hannah from her immense grief and affliction, as well as from the fervor of prayer, was moving her lips in such a way that she seemed to distort her mouth like a drunkard and to contort it excessively, says St. Chrysostom, Homily 79 to the People. For a spirit boiling with sorrow and affliction breaks out into disordered and unseemly gestures, such as those of drunkards. Eli, however, did not know of Hannah's affliction, but seeing her produce such gestures after the meal, he suspected that she had drunk too freely at lunch. Besides, Hannah was weeping, and many people when drunk are accustomed to weep, either from joy or from the recollection of their troubles; for wine easily provokes tears, and is itself resolved into vapors and tears.
Verse 14: Eli's Rebuke
Verse 14. And he said to her: How long will you be drunk? -- This was a severe rebuke, especially because it came from the High Priest. To soften it, the Septuagint translate: "The boy of Eli said to her." Hence St. Chrysostom, Homily 2 on Hannah, and Philo, in his book On Drunkenness, hold that Eli did not say these things to Hannah in person, but through a servant, both so as not to shame her too much, and because he thought it unworthy of the dignity of the High Priest to converse with a drunken woman.
Verse 15: Hannah's Defense
Verse 15. And Hannah answering said: Not so, my lord -- I am not drunk or inebriated, as you think, and too boldly reproach me. St. Chrysostom notes the reverence, humility, and modesty of Hannah, who patiently bore the reproach of drunkenness -- which is a grave and shameful charge against a woman -- cast against her by Eli, and refuted it with a simple denial. She calls Eli "lord," and as to a priest reveals her affliction to him, and therefore merited to be blessed by him and to obtain her vow and her son. Hear St. Gregory: "Calling the priest 'lord,' she denies being drunk, so that out of humility she might subject herself to the higher order, and with truth contradict the false accusation."
But I have poured out my soul before the Lord -- my soul, that is, the anguish of my soul, my sorrows, afflictions, likewise my desires, vows, and hopes of conceiving offspring. For all these things, and consequently her whole heart, as it were, and her entire soul, Hannah represented to God in prayer, and poured them out like water, sincerely and candidly, reserving nothing for herself, keeping nothing hidden or concealed, but disclosing everything and pouring it all into the bosom of God.
Hence St. Chrysostom, in his Homily on the Faith of Hannah: "No one would err," he says, "who called this woman both the mother and the father of the child. For although her husband had contributed the seed, nevertheless her prayer gave force and efficacy to the seed, and brought it about that Samuel was born under most auspicious beginnings."
Some commentators cited by Abulensis explain it thus: "I poured out my soul," that is, the bile and anger of my soul before the Lord, presenting to Him the movements of anger which I had conceived against Peninnah who was mocking me, and asking from Him a remedy and consolation for them, so that having poured out all the anger of my heart before God, I might free this heart from bitterness, lest anything remain in it that I might pour out against my rival Peninnah through angry words and speech. And this is the present remedy for anger and indignation -- that one should pour it all out before God through prayer, as Abulensis and others teach.
Verse 16: Daughters of Belial
Verse 16. Do not count your handmaid as one of the daughters of Belial -- that is, as a drunkard, wicked, and impious woman. See what I said about Belial in 2 Corinthians 6. Note, says St. Jerome in the Questions, that all who pursue drunkenness are called sons of Belial. So St. Jerome and from him Angelomus.
Verse 17: Eli's Blessing
Verse 17. Then Eli said to her: Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant you your petition. -- Behold, the fruit of reverence and humility is the blessing and favorable prayer of the High Priest, which made Hannah the possessor of her vow and fruitful. "The woman," says St. Chrysostom, "made an advocate out of her accuser; she found an intercessor in the one who had been her rebuker." Theodoret notes that married couples should seek the blessing of a priest, so that they may receive upright and holy offspring, as happened here to Hannah. For Samuel should be reckoned not so much the son of Hannah as of God, given to Hannah by Him through the blessing of Eli.
Verse 18: Hannah's Serenity
Verse 18. And she said: Would that your handmaid may find grace in your eyes! -- First, St. Chrysostom explains it thus: "Would that from the outcome of the event you may learn that I prayed not from drunkenness but from affliction and devotion!" Second, and better, as if she says: "May I find this grace with you, that you would be willing to pray for me, that God would free me from this affliction, console me, and make me a mother." So the Hebrews, Vatablus, Cajetan, and others; for "to find grace" among the Hebrews is the same as "to please, to be agreeable."
And her countenance was no more changed to different expressions. -- In Hebrew: "and there were no longer to her faces," that is, varied and diverse expressions, so that she appeared now sad, now happy, but she always appeared with the same face -- grave, modest, serene, and joyful. Some translate: "and there was no longer to her a face," that is, a sad one; or "face," meaning sadness of face -- because, having resigned herself entirely to God through prayer, she was gifted by Him with serenity of soul and confidence, so that she might rest in God and in His providence and will. For God then instilled in her a firm confidence that her prayer had been heard by Him, and that she would con-
ceive a son. Hence, full of hope, says R. Joseph and from him Serarius, she first went to her lodging at Shiloh; then the next day to Ramah, and now joyfully took food, and no longer wore a sad and downcast countenance, but a calm and steady one. "You see," says Chrysostom, "the woman's faith? Before she received what she had asked for, she was as confident as if she had already received it. The reason was that the woman prayed with fervor," etc.
Now a serene and steady countenance is the sign of a serene and steady soul, for it proceeds from it. As Ambrose says in Book I of On Duties, chapter 18: "The disposition of the mind is discerned in the state of the body; the movement of the body is a kind of voice of the soul." And in his book On Elijah, chapter 10: "The face," he says, "is a kind of judge of thought, and a silent interpreter of the heart. The countenance is generally the indicator of the conscience and the silent speech of the mind."
Both are the fruit of prayer. Hear St. Chrysostom on Psalm 129, speaking about prayer: "He who prays thus," he says, "even before he obtains what he asks for, receives great goods from prayer -- suppressing all disturbances of the soul, calming anger, expelling envy, extinguishing desire, diminishing and drying up the love of things pertaining to this life, restoring the soul to great tranquility, and then ascending into heaven itself."
Symbolically, Rupert and St. Gregory (Book XXXIII of the Moralia, chapter 21): Hannah did not change her countenance because, having once fixed the eyes of her mind on God through prayer, she did not thereafter turn them away from Him, but steadfastly kept them on Him and persisted in prayer, so that she always had God in her mind.
Verse 19: Morning Worship and Return
Verse 19. And they rose in the morning, and worshipped before God -- that is, before the ark; they worshipped God residing above the ark on the mercy seat. Tropologically, learn here to invoke God in the morning before you set out on a journey or undertake a task, so that God may further and prosper it. "When you go out from your lodging," says St. Jerome, Epistle 22, "let prayer arm you; when you return from the street, let prayer meet you before you sit down."
Therefore Hannah was heard, and by a great miracle a son was born to her. Tertullian, book On Fasting, chapter 7: "Hannah easily prevails upon God to fill a belly empty of food, and indeed with a prophet." See what I said about praying in the morning, Deuteronomy 6:7.
Verse 20: The Naming of Samuel
Verse 20. And she called his name Samuel, because she had asked him of God. -- Hence it is clear that Samuel in Hebrew is the same as Saul meel, that is, "asked of God." So Josephus, Eusebius, Serarius, and others: asked, I say, and obtained by the asking of his mother. For the Hebrews in composing names do not preserve grammatical order, but transpose or drop certain letters. He was therefore called Samuel to this end: that whenever the boy heard this name of his, he would remember that he was given by God through a miracle to his vowing mother, and therefore that his whole being and life he owed to God as a special Son of God, and accordingly he should surrender himself wholly to Him, indeed return himself, and willingly take up the burdens of the Nazariteship which his mother had vowed. For he was reminded of this vow whenever his mother called him "Samuel, Samuel."
Second, some commentators cited by Abulensis hold that Samuel is the same as Ishmael, so that Samuel is said to be as it were Scama el, that is, "God heard the prayer of Hannah his mother."
Third, St. Gregory and Angelomus: "Samuel," they say, is the same as scemo el, that is, "his name is God," so that "Samuel" is nearly the same as "Emmanuel," that is, "God with us." The name "Samuel" alludes to this, although this is not the strict derivation and etymology of the name. Just as Moses was constituted by God as a god to Pharaoh (Exodus 7:1), so also Samuel was to Saul and Israel.
Fourth, Francis George, Volume I, Problem 442: Samuel, he says, is the same as scamo el, that is, "God placed him." Philo agrees, who in his book That God, etc., and in his book On Drunkenness says: Samuel is the same as tetagmenos Theo, that is, "placed" or "ordered for God," because God created him to be dedicated and consecrated to Himself. His mother later added another etymology of Samuel, about which see the last verse.
The first explanation is the most proper and genuine; accordingly Josephus, Theodoret, Procopius, and others generally follow it. So "Theodore," and inversely "Dorothea," in Greek means the same as Theou doron, that is, "gift of God." Hence Theodoret writes in the Philotheus, chapter 13, that this name was given to him because his mother had obtained him from God through the prayers of Macedonius the anchorite. "Theodore" in Greek is therefore the same as in Latin: "Given by God," by which name St. Augustine named his son; or "Given to God," by which name Philip II, King of France, was called, because his father Louis, already elderly, had obtained him from God through prayers when he had almost despaired of having an heir. Similarly Demaratus was the name of the son of Ariston, King of Sparta, because the whole people had prayed that a son like the excellent King Ariston would be born, as Herodotus testifies, Book VI. For Demaratus is derived from demou ara, that is, "the prayer, devotion, vow of the people."
Verse 21: Elkanah's Annual Sacrifice
Verse 21. And Elkanah her husband went up, and all his house (family), to offer to the Lord the solemn sacrifice (which he was accustomed to offer at the three yearly solemnities, namely Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles; hence in Hebrew it is "the sacrifice of the days," that is, the annual one) and his vow. -- Hence it is clear that when his wife Hannah made her vow, Elkanah her husband also made his own vow to God for Hannah's fertility and for the Samuel who was to be born, which he now wished to fulfill since Samuel had been obtained and born. For a mother, against the father's will, cannot vow a son to God, because a son depends more on the father than on the mother, and the husband is the head of the wife and of the whole family. So teach Abulensis here, Question XXII, and Sylvester, under the word "Religion" 1, Question XIII. Similarly St. Gregory Nazianzen, in his poem On His Own Life, asserts that he was born by a vow and given by God to his mother, and that the appearance and name of the son to be born had been presented to her while she was pregnant, and therefore he had immediately after birth been given by his mother to God.
offered. Similarly, St. Nicholas of Tolentino was born through a vow of his parents made to St. Nicholas Bishop of Myra, and from him received the name Nicholas. Similarly, St. Francis of Assisi, through the vow of his parents, obtained as a son St. Francis of Paola, the founder of the Order of Minims, and many other similar cases.
Verse 22: Weaning the Child
Verse 22. I will not go until the child is weaned. -- You will object: Hannah here seems not to have observed the law of purification of the mother, to be fulfilled on the fortieth day after birth (Leviticus 12), when parents offered their firstborn to God and redeemed him for five shekels (Exodus 13).
Abulensis responds, Questions XXXVII and following, that the Levites (such as Hannah and Elkanah were) were not bound by this law, because they were already dedicated and consecrated to God, and because those purification sacrifices accrued to their own benefit. Therefore they did not redeem their firstborn with five shekels, nor did they offer the sacrifices prescribed for others.
Verse 23: The Lord's Word Fulfilled
Verse 23. And I pray that the Lord fulfill His word. -- From this it seems that some revelation about Samuel had preceded, which is not here expressed, as I said about the vow of Elkanah. For Scripture is accustomed to pass over many things in silence, which it later suggests and supplies. So Cajetan. R. Nehemiah asserts that a voice was heard in Shiloh: "A boy will be born named Samuel, who will deliver Israel from the hands of the Philistines." Therefore all mothers then named their sons Samuel; and when Hannah had also named her son Samuel, Elkanah said: "May the Lord fulfill His vow," namely, that through my Samuel He deliver Israel from the Philistines. But this smacks of a rabbinical fable, as Abulensis shows at length here. For Hannah did not call her son Samuel from a voice oracle, but because she had asked for and obtained him from God through her vow and tears.
She nursed her son. -- St. Chrysostom, Homily on Samuel: "From that time," he says, "she looked upon the boy not merely as a mother, but as upon a thing consecrated to God, and reverenced him. For if those who intend to dedicate golden bowls and cups to God, after they have received them already finished and stored them at home, by no means defile them as if they were profane vessels, but treat them as sacred to God, and do not dare to touch them rashly or without cause, as they do other things -- much more so this woman," etc. Especially because Samuel was a type of Christ; indeed, he is called by some Fathers "the new Moses of Israel."
Moreover, that mothers should nurse their children with their own milk, not that of wet nurses, is taught by the example of Sarah and Hannah by St. Ambrose, Book I On Abraham, chapter 7; St. Chrysostom, Homily 1 on Psalm 20; Clement of Alexandria, Book III of the Pedagogue, chapter 4. For thus children become stronger, more like their mothers, and by suckling imbibe their gifts and virtues.
Verse 24: Presentation at Shiloh
Verse 24. And she brought him -- just recently weaned from milk, which among the Hebrews happened in the third year of age, as is gathered from 2 Maccabees 7:27. So St. Gregory, Chrysostom, Procopius, Theodoret, Abulensis, Cajetan, Hugo, Dionysius. Moreover, that a period of three years is suitable for nursing children, Galen teaches, and from him Francis Valesius, Sacred Philosophy, chapter 83.
Then therefore Samuel as a little child, as he is called in verse 24, was offered to God in the temple. Therefore Lyranus incorrectly holds that Samuel was offered to God at ten years of age; others say seven; others twelve. Likewise the Blessed Virgin was presented to God in the temple at the age of three, as the Fathers teach whom our Canisius cites in Book I of the Mariale, chapter 12, and Christopher a Castro in the History of the Mother of God, chapter 3.
Hear St. Chrysostom, Homily on Samuel: "Torn from the breast," he says. And below: "In his earliest childhood he passed from the breast of his mother to a spiritual breast." And St. Jerome on Ruth: "What is so pious as for a holy mother to guard a holy son? Hannah bore Samuel not for herself but for the tabernacle." St. Augustine on Psalm 98: "Samuel was born to his mother for the time of nursing; as soon as she had weaned him, she gave him to the temple, that there he might grow, there be strengthened in the Spirit, there serve God."
Hence St. Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 40, by the example of Hannah teaches mothers to consecrate their sons to God from infancy. Hear St. Jerome, Epistle 7 to Laeta, On the Education of a Daughter: "Samuel is nourished in the temple, John is prepared in the wilderness; the former is venerable with his sacred hair, drinks neither wine nor strong drink; while still a small child he converses with the Lord. The latter flees cities, is girt with a leather belt, feeds on locusts and wild honey, and in a type of the penance to be preached, is clothed in the skin of a most tortuous animal. So must the soul be trained that is to be the temple of God. Let her learn to hear nothing else, to speak nothing else, except what pertains to the fear of God. Let her not understand shameful words, let her be ignorant of the songs of the world; let her still-tender tongue be steeped in sweet psalms." And after some intervening lines: "Let her be nourished in a monastery, let her be among choirs of virgins; let her not learn to swear; let her consider lying a sacrilege; let her not know the world; let her live like an angel, be in the flesh without the flesh; let her think all humankind is like herself."
Thus St. Maurus, St. Placidus, and other sons of senators and princes were entrusted by their parents to St. Benedict, to be educated by him in piety and the fear of God. In the monastery of St. Pachomius (as his Life records), boys were raised so simply that they did not even know their right hand from their left. St. Thomas Aquinas was educated by monks at Monte Cassino, as were very many other sons of princes.
Finally, St. Paulinus, Epistle 10, compares Melania to Hannah. Dorotheus more fittingly compares St. Anne, the mother of the Blessed Virgin, to the same Hannah, for she bore not Samuel but Christ Himself.
And she brought him, etc., with three bulls. -- So the Hebrew, the Chaldean, and others. It is surprising, therefore, that the Septuagint translated in the singular, "with a three-year-old bull." Now "in," that is, "with three bulls," which she would offer to God together with her Samuel.
And three measures of flour. -- In Hebrew, "an ephah of flour," that is, three measures of flour. For an ephah was the tenth part of a homer or cor, which contained thirty measures. Therefore an ephah was a large measure, containing three smaller measures. This is a response to the author of the Questions on the Books of Kings cited by St. Jerome and Angelomus, who think this passage is corrupted and read "one measure." Blessed Peter Damian gives the reason for this offering, Book VI, Epistle 37 (which in the complete order is number 105): "Samuel," he says, "a little boy like a tender lamb, with three measures of flour and a bottle of wine, is set upon the Lord's table, so to speak, when he is dedicated by his parents to Eli the priest and to the temple of God."
And the child was yet very young. -- In Hebrew: "and the boy was yet a boy," that is, he was a tiny infant, namely three years old.
Verse 25: Offering the Boy to Eli
Verse 25. And they offered the boy to Eli -- so that according to their vow, as it were renouncing him from their household, they might dedicate him to God, that he might continually serve Him in the tabernacle.
Hear St. Chrysostom, Homily 1 on Hannah, wondering whether to admire more the virtue of Hannah or of Samuel: "While children are accustomed to be indignant," he says, "whenever they are taken from the breast, this boy did not take it badly when separated from his mother, but looked to the Lord who had created his mother; nor did the mother herself grieve at being separated from the boy, because intervening grace overcame natural affection, and each considered that they continued to live together through the other."
Then he illustrates the same point with a fitting simile: "Just as a vine fixed in one place," he says, "extends its branches over a long distance, and the grape hanging at a great distance has intercourse with the root -- so it happened also with this woman, who, remaining in the city, extended her branch all the way to the temple, and there hung a ripe grape; nor did that distance bring any impediment, since the love that is according to God joined the child to his mother."
Chrysostom adds, chapter 3, that Hannah offered herself as well together with Samuel to God: for where Samuel was, there was Hannah also; for Samuel drew his mother's innermost feelings after him. "While she says such things," he says, "she dedicated herself also together with the boy, as if binding herself to the temple by a kind of firm natural affection. For if where a man's treasure is, there also is his heart, much more where a woman's child is, there also will her mind be."
Finally, St. Chrysostom presses this example of Hannah in Book III Against the Detractors of the Monastic Life, and teaches that parents should permit their sons to serve in the heavenly ministry -- not merely introducing them into the temple, as Hannah did Samuel, but dedicating them to heaven itself with the angels in the divine ministry; for religious serve God together with the angels. From which it also follows that they contribute much more to the glory and happiness of their parents than if they had remained in the world.
Verse 26: Hannah's Oath
Verse 26. As your soul lives -- that is, I swear by your soul and life; or, what I say is as true as it is true that you live, or that I wish for your life.
Verse 28: Lending Samuel to the Lord
Verse 28. Therefore I also have lent (St. Gregory less correctly reads "commended") him to the Lord all the days that he shall be lent (will be) to the Lord. -- "Lent," that is, "handed over," as the Chaldean translates, "gave," as God gave him to me -- as if she were saying: God gave him to me, so I return him to God and dedicate him, to minister to Him perpetually in the tabernacle. For the Hebrew scaal, in the Hiphil form hischil, signifies not only to ask and petition, but also to lend, give, and bestow by catachresis what has been asked and petitioned for. For Hebrew verbs signify an action now begun, now completed, especially in the Hiphil. Therefore scaal signifies both "to ask" and "to hear one's petition," that is, to give and bestow the thing asked for. Hence Samuel here in Hebrew is called as it were Saul leel, that is, "given" or "lent and handed over to God." Saul likewise was the name of the first king of Israel, as though "given by God" or "asked for by the people and called by God." Hence from Saul, who was from the tribe of Benjamin, Saul Paul the Apostle was named, also a native of the tribe of Benjamin. Hence he gives himself this title at the beginning of his epistle: "Paul, called an Apostle," etc.
In the Hebrew there is a beautiful wordplay. For Hannah says: "I scaalti (asked)," that is, "I asked God for Samuel and obtained him; therefore I in return hischilti (lent)," that is, "I lent and handed him over to God, so that he may be Saul," that is, "lent, given, and dedicated to God for his entire life." For she alludes to the name Samuel and gives it another etymology, as if to say: My Samuel was initially called Saul meel, that is, "asked from God"; but now he is called Samuel, as it were Saul leel, that is, "given and offered, indeed returned, to the Lord."
"All the days that he shall be lent (supply: will be) to the Lord" -- as long as he shall live, he will be lent, given, and dedicated to God, so that He Himself may use him at will. Hence the Septuagint translate it as chresis kyriou, that is, "the use of the Lord," as if to say: "She handed him over to the Lord to be used for any purpose of His." Vatablus: "I also have consigned him to the Lord for all the days in which he himself was consigned to the Lord" -- as if to say: "I gave him to the Lord, so that for his whole life he may be consigned and devoted to the Lord."
Hear St. Chrysostom, Homily 2 on Hannah: "See how modest she is. 'Do not think,' she says, 'that I am doing something great or admirable in dedicating this infant. I am not the author of this good deed, but am paying a debt. I received a deposit, and I am restoring it to Him who gave it.'"
The same, Homily 21 on the Epistle to the Ephesians: "Because she offered the firstfruits (of her children, namely Samuel), her womb became fertile, and she also acquired other brothers for him." Let parents imitate this: let them not call back children who aspire to the Religious life, but rather encourage them; for thus they will be enriched by God with both children and wealth.
Hear also St. Ambrose, in his Exhortation to Virgins, praising Juliana, a most noble matron of Rome, because she had dedicated her only son following the example of our Hannah: "You, my son, obtained by my prayers and my vow, acknowledge by whom you were given to me. He fashioned your features; He distinguished your limbs; He accepted my prayers, to whose temple and to whose service I consecrated you before you were born. You were born not for your parents, not for yourself, but for God, whose you began to be before you left your mother's womb. And indeed we all belong to Him; but you were specially promised to the Lord, and are now returned. I, like Hannah, promised that you would not depart from the Lord's presence all the days and nights of your life. Now fulfill it." St. Ambrose concludes: "Excellent seed," he says, "who reserved nothing for herself, and offered to God everything she had; whose life is a training in discipline and a kind of model of chastity, with a good resolution and an even better instruction."
Hear also St. Bernard, Epistle 110, addressing the parents: "If God makes your son His own as well, what do you lose? Or what does he himself lose? He becomes richer from a rich man, more noble from a nobleman, more illustrious from an illustrious one; and what is greater than all these, holy from a sinner. But you do not lose him; rather, through him you acquire many sons for yourselves. As many as we are at Clairvaux, we receive him as a brother and you as parents."
All the days. -- Lyranus holds that Samuel ministered to God in the temple only until the age of fifty; for at that age the Levites were given freedom as veterans and were no longer required to serve in the tabernacle, as is clear from Numbers chapter 8, verse 25. But this is inconsistent with this passage; hence others generally hold that he served God in the temple for his entire life. So Philo, in his book On Dreams, at the end; St. Augustine on Psalm 98; St. Jerome on Ezekiel chapter 24; Blessed Peter Damian, Book V, Epistle 9; Chrysostom, Homily 4 on Acts, whom hear: "Consider Samuel, who after administering the people's affairs for forty years, was still nourished in the temple."
Hence the Fathers teach that the greatest care must be applied by parents in the education of children, and that the children themselves should dedicate themselves to virtue and to God from their earliest years. Hear among others St. Chrysostom in Pentecost 14, asking why he and others are inscribed "unto the end," and answering: "Because it teaches about justice and the other virtues; and one who teaches about these things should not urge them only at the end of life, but from the beginning and from the very cradle." And shortly after: "If none of you wants to have an elderly servant, how much more does God want youth, and joins it to Himself like an untouched virgin, so that He may seek the firstfruits of one's life, and so that no one, having exhausted his youth in sin, should reserve his languid and enfeebled old age for virtue, and temper the dregs of life with wisdom."
And Clement of Alexandria, Book I of the Pedagogue, chapter 5: "Just as fathers and mothers," he says, "more gladly look upon the foals of horses, the calves of cattle, the cubs of lions, the fawns of deer, and the child of a human being, so also the Father of all receives, loves, and defends them."
Our Mendoza gathers more material on this topic here. Finally, what Plato said -- that those who wish to become outstanding in some art or science must practice it from boyhood -- is more truly the case in the pursuit of virtue and sanctity. Hence outstanding Saints devoted themselves to holiness from boyhood, such as Samuel, St. John the Baptist, St. Nicholas, and others.
Moreover, this vow of the mother did not bind Samuel so tightly that, when grown up, he could not freely leave the temple and choose another place and state of life, as Lessius teaches in his tract On Vows, doubt 10. Nevertheless, Samuel chose to keep his mother's vow and ratify it for his entire life.
And she prayed -- giving thanks to God and singing the canticle that follows in chapter 2. For the first part of prayer should be the praise of God and thanksgiving, as Paul teaches. Hence "praise" is sometimes taken for "prayer," as in Lamentations chapter 2, verse 19: "Arise, praise in the night." And Jeremiah chapter 7: "Therefore do not pray for this people, nor take up praise for them."