1 Samuel — Chapter 1

Ramathaim-Sophim: Lapide notes this city (also called Rama, Ramatha, Arimathia) was birthplace of Elkanah and Samuel; from it came Joseph the noble decurion who buried Christ (Matt. 27). Per Jerome, Bede, Angelomus, Rabanus, Hugo, Dionysius. It sat on a twin-peaked hill, hence \"Ramathaim\" (dual form = \"two heights\").

Phenenna = Hebrew \"pearl\"; Anna = Hebrew \"grace.\" Allegorically (Gregory, Rupert, Bede, Hugh, Dionysius): Phenenna the fertile signifies the Synagogue of the Jews, which once abounded in faithful sons; Anna the barren signifies the Church of the Gentiles, which was once sterile but through Christ bore all nations for God.

Elkanah goes up to Shiloh three times yearly for the solemn feast-days (Pasch, Pentecost, Tabernacles) and there sacrifices the peace-offering, distributing portions to wife and children. Lapide: note and imitate Elkanah's piety and religion, going seven miles with all his household to sacrifice.

One portion with sorrow (Heb. appayim: faces/anger/grief): Lapide surveys the Hebrew variants — Chaldaean: \"an honourable portion\"; Pagninus: \"a portion with anger and sorrow, because he was indignant that he could not give her more.\" Both passions — grief and anger — appear chiefly in the face; and one is joined to the other.

Anna wept and would not eat; Phenenna continually provoked her. Lapide cites Chrysostom: \"Tribulation is the mother of moral wisdom; Anna, having a rival who persecuted her with insults, did not persecute her in return, but wept.\" And Tertullian: when a man strikes against patience, his blow is like a weapon hurled against solid rock — it rebounds on the sender.

Anna rises after eating, prays before the Lord at Shiloh with bitter soul (amaritudine animi), weeping abundantly, and making a vow. Triple condition of effective prayer: (1) fervent compunction of heart and abundant tears (Gregory, Origen); (2) total self-offering to God; (3) a vow. Thus she stormed God and obtained what she sought.

Hannah's vow: if God gives her a son, she will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall come upon his head. Lapide: the vow was to make Samuel a Nazirite — a religious of that era — who would not cut his hair, abstain from wine, and minister in the tabernacle all his days, unlike other Levites who served only by rotation.

Now Anna spoke in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard at all. Model of interior prayer: Lapide cites Chrysostom (hom. 2 De Anna), Cassian (Collat. IX), Jerome (\"Be a cricket of the night\"), and Cyprian: \"Anna, bearing the type of the Church, prayed to the Lord not with a clamorous petition but silently and modestly within the hidden recesses of the breast. She spoke not with the voice but with the heart, because she knew that God thus hears.\"

Heli reproves Anna, thinking her drunk. Lapide: note Anna's reverence, humility, and modesty — she bore the reproach of drunkenness (grave and shameful in a woman) from the high priest with patience, refuted it with a simple denial, called Heli \"lord,\" and opened her affliction to him as a priest. For this humility she merited his blessing and the fulfilment of her vow.

I have poured out my soul before the Lord. Lapide: Anna poured out all her soul's anguish, sorrows, afflictions, desires, vows, and hopes before God — like pure clear water, reserving nothing, hiding nothing, but spreading all and pouring it into the bosom of God. This is the perfection of prayer: to present the whole heart to God.

Count not thine handmaid as a daughter of Belial. Jerome: \"Note that all who follow drunkenness are called sons of Belial.\" Lapide: sobriety is the guardian of prayer; Anna had abstained from wine and strong drink all her life (Philo, De Ebrietate), as a quasi-Nazarite, and thereby merited to be the mother of Samuel the great prophet.

Go in peace; and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition which thou hast asked of him. Fruit of reverence and humility: the priest's blessing and favourable intercession made Anna fruitful. Chrysostom: \"The woman turned her accuser into her patron; she obtained as her intercessor him who had been her reprover.\" Theodoretus: married couples should seek the blessing of a priest to beget holy and upright offspring.

Anna's countenance was no more downcast (Heb.: \"her face was no longer in diverse changes\"). Lapide: her face became equable, grave, serene, and joyful — sign of the soul's serenity obtained through prayer. Chrysostom: \"See the woman's faith — before she received what she had asked, she was confident as if she had already received it; the cause was that she had prayed with fervour.\"

She called his name Samuel, because she had asked him of the Lord. Samuel in Hebrew = Saul-meel = \"asked of God\" (Josephus, Eusebius, Serarius). Or: Scama-el = \"God heard.\" Or (Gregory, Angelomus): nomen ejus Deus — \"His name is God,\" nearly equivalent to \"Emmanuel.\" Anna named him thus so that whenever he heard his name, he would remember he was a miraculous gift of God, owed entirely to God.

Elkanah ascends with all his household to offer the solemn sacrifice and his vow. Lapide: this shows Elkanah had made his own vow to God for Anna's fruitfulness and Samuel's birth; for a mother cannot vow a son against the father's will, since the son depends more on the father (Abulensis, Sylvester).

For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath granted me my petition which I asked of him. Samuel was not so much Anna's son as God's son, given to Anna through Heli's blessing. Chrysostom: \"Anna was both mother and father of the child — though the husband contributed the seed, it was her intercession that gave force and efficacy to the seed and caused Samuel to be born under auspicious beginnings.\"