What does 1 Samuel 1:15 mean?
Eli, the priest of the temple at Shiloh, has just confronted a woman he believed to be drunk. The woman is Hannah and she is praying fervently to the Lord. Her lips are moving, but her words are silent. Hannah is distressed because she has no children and her husband's second wife, who does have children, intentionally provokes her. She has vowed to God that if He gives her a son, she will give that son to God in service for his life (1 Samuel 1:1–11).Hannah was in Shiloh with her family for an annual feast, which could be part of the reason Eli assumes she is drunk. After observing her apparently animated silent prayer in the temple, Eli told Hannah to give up the wine (1 Samuel 1:12–14). Here, Hannah explains the situation.
What the priest has seen, Hannah says, is her pouring her soul out before the Lord (Psalm 62:8). She has not had any alcohol that day. Rather, she is "troubled in spirit" and has been baring herself to God in prayer. Hannah does not detail the cause of her trouble, but she does explain she has been talking out of her "anxiety and vexation" (1 Samuel 1:16).
This beautiful expression—pouring out one's soul—captures what the Lord truly desires from those who are His. Hannah expressed everything she was feeling to the Lord. This is often not easy to do, but when we expose our hearts entirely before God, we are demonstrating active faith; we trust His love and His power. Prayer is not about saying a few correct words in the right order to make a request to the Lord. Prayer is communicating with a God who hears (Acts 7:34; Hebrews 4:14–16; 10:19–23). Many times, as in this instance with Hannah, prayer includes gathering up grief and worry and pain and throwing it away from ourselves and onto our good God (1 Peter 5:6–7).
First Samuel 1:1–20 describes how Samuel the prophet came to be born. His mother Hannah was barren and mocked by her husband's other wife, who had many children. During a family feast at Shiloh, Hannah prayed out of her deep despair. She vowed to give her son back to God if He would allow her to conceive. Once Eli, the priest, understood that Hannah was not drunk, he told her the Lord would grant her request. Satisfied, she returned home and soon gave birth to a boy. She named him Samuel.
Elkanah lives in Ephraim with two wives. Hannah is barren, while his other wife has many children. At the annual family sacrifice and feast in Shiloh, Hannah weeps and pours out her grief before the Lord. She vows to give a son to Him for lifelong service if the Lord gives her a boy. After confronting Hannah for drunkenness and then seeing that she was praying from her depth of emotion, Eli the priest blesses Hannah and affirms her prayer. Elkanah and Hannah conceive, and she gives birth to a son that she names Samuel. Once he is weaned, she presents him to Eli at the temple and gives him over to the Lord as long as he lives.
