“They rose early in the morning and worshiped before Yahweh. Then they went back to their house at Ramah. Elkanah knew Hannah his wife. Yahweh remembered her. In due time, Hannah conceived and bore a son. She named him Samuel. She said. ‘I have asked him of Yahweh.’”
After intercourse, knowing each other, Hannah had a child because Yahweh had remembered her. They called him Samuel. There is a question on whether it should have been ‘sha’al’ or ‘shem-el.’ Saul (sha’al) would have been about asking God but Samuel (shem-el) is the name of God. Anyway his name is Samuel. We will get a Saul later.
“The man Elkanah and his entire household went up to offer to Yahweh the yearly sacrifice, and to pay his vow. But Hannah did not go up. She said to her husband. ‘As soon as the child is weaned, I will bring him that he may appear in the presence of Yahweh, and abide there forever. I will offer him as a Nazirite for all time. Elkanah her husband said to her. ‘Do what seems best to you. Wait until you have weaned him. Only, may Yahweh establish his word.’ So the woman remained and nursed her son, until she weaned him.”
At the yearly sacrifice, Hannah did not want to go because the child was breast feeding and not weaned. She said that she was going to offer him as a Nazirite when she would go to Shiloh. However, Elkanah told her to stay home if you wanted to. So she stayed at home until Samuel was weaned.
“When she had weaned him, she took him up with her, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine. She brought him to the house of Yahweh at Shiloh. The child was young. Then they slaughtered the bull. They brought the child to Eli. She said, ‘Oh, my lord! As you live, my lord, I am the woman who was standing here in your presence, praying to Yahweh. For this child I prayed. Yahweh has granted me my petition which I made to him. Therefore I have lent him to Yahweh. As long as he lives, he is given to Yahweh.’ They worshiped Yahweh there.”
However, once the child was weaned, she went to Shiloh to offer a sacrifice to Yahweh of a 3 year old bull. She brought young Samuel to the temple of Yahweh at Shiloh. There they saw Eli. She reminded him that she was the lady in the temple that he confronted. She showed him the child Samuel. Then she gave or lent Samuel to Yahweh and they all worshiped Yahweh.
Eugene Finnegan Bible Project 