1 Samuel 1:19
1Sa 1:19-20 Samuel’s birth, and dedication to the Lord. - 1Sa 1:19, 1Sa 1:20. The next morning Elkanah returned home to Ramah (see at 1Sa 1:1) with his two wives, having first of all worshipped before the Lord; after which he knew his wife Hannah, and Jehovah remembered her, i.e., heard her prayer. “In the revolution of the days,” i.e., of the period of her conception and pregnancy, Hannah conceived and bare a son, whom she called Samuel; “for (she said) I have asked him of the Lord.” The name שׁמוּאל (Σαμουήλ, lxx) is not formed from שׁמוּ = שׁם and אל, name of God (Ges. Thes. p. 1434), but from אל שׁמוּע, heard of God, a Deo exauditus, with an elision of the ע (see Ewald, §275, a., Not. 3); and the words “because I have asked him of the Lord” are not an etymological explanation of the name, but an exposition founded upon the facts. Because Hannah had asked him of Jehovah, she gave him the name, “the God-heard,” as a memorial of the hearing of her prayer.
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