“LORD All-Powerful, I am your servant, but I am so miserable! Please let me have a son. I will give him to you for as long as he lives, and his hair will never be cut.”
Leah gave birth to a son and named him Reuben, because she said, “The LORD has taken away my sorrow. Now my husband will love me more than he does Rachel.”
The Israelites prayed, “Our LORD, if you will help us defeat these Canaanites, we will completely destroy their towns and everything in them, to show that they belong to you.”
He will offer one of the birds as a sacrifice for sin and the other as a sacrifice to please me. You will then be forgiven for being too near a dead body, and your hair will again become sacred.
Elkanah and his family got up early the next morning and worshipped the LORD. Then they went back home to Ramah. Later the LORD blessed Elkanah and Hannah
But Hannah stayed at home, because she had told Elkanah, “Samuel and I won't go until he's old enough for me to stop nursing him. Then I'll give him to the LORD, and he can stay there at Shiloh for the rest of his life.”
Eli would always bless Elkanah and his wife and say, “Samuel was born in answer to your prayers. Now you have given him to the LORD. I pray that the LORD will bless you with more children to take his place.” After Eli had blessed them, Elkanah and Hannah would return home.