Chapter
Verse

1 Samuel 1:22

ESV But Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, "As soon as the child is weaned, I will bring him, so that he may appear in the presence of the Lord and dwell there forever."
NIV Hannah did not go. She said to her husband, "After the boy is weaned, I will take him and present him before the Lord, and he will live there always."
NASB But Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, 'I will not go until the child is weaned; then I will bring him, so that he may appear before the Lord and stay there for life.'
CSB Hannah did not go and explained to her husband, "After the child is weaned, I’ll take him to appear in the Lord’s presence and to stay there permanently."
NLT But Hannah did not go. She told her husband, 'Wait until the boy is weaned. Then I will take him to the Tabernacle and leave him there with the Lord permanently. '
KJV But Hannah went not up; for she said unto her husband, I will not go up until the child be weaned, and then I will bring him, that he may appear before the Lord, and there abide for ever.
NKJV But Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, “ Not until the child is weaned; then I will take him, that he may appear before the Lord and remain there forever.”

What does 1 Samuel 1:22 mean?

The time has come for the annual sacrifice to the Lord in Shiloh. Elkanah has planned to travel to the temple there to participate in the ritual. He also plans to pay the vow to the Lord he now shares with his wife Hannah (Numbers 30:10–15), or to pay a separate vow he had made (1 Samuel 1:21). Hannah had vowed to give any son the Lord would give to her right back to Him for a life of service in the temple (1 Samuel 1:11).

Hannah, though, tells her husband, "Not yet." She and the baby would not go with Elkanah to Shiloh. She suggested they wait until the child was weaned: no longer breastfeeding and eating solid food. Then she would take Samuel to the temple so that he could live in God's presence forever. She said this because God's presence was understood to rest on the ark of the covenant, which was in the temple at Shiloh (Joshua 18:1).

To delay in paying a vow to the Lord was a serious matter and not to be treated lightly. Still, Hannah had a point. The baby could not live on its own apart from her until he could eat independently. In that era, it was common for a child to be three years old before being considered fully "weaned."
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