²³ So ^(A)Elkanah her husband said to her, “Do what seems best to you; wait until you have weaned him. Only let the Lord ^[a]establish ^[b]His word.” Then the woman stayed and nursed her son until she had weaned him.

²⁵ “Now, O Lord God, the word which You have spoken concerning Your servant and concerning his house, establish it forever and do as You have said.

Keeping the Word

²⁷ And it happened, as He spoke these things, that a certain woman from the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, ^(A)“Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts which nursed You!”

¹⁹ But ^(A)woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days!

¹⁷ Then Eli answered and said, ^(A)“Go in peace, and ^(B)the God of Israel grant your petition which you have asked of Him.”

⁷ and her husband hears it, and makes no response to her on the day that he hears, then her vows shall stand, and her agreements by which she bound herself shall stand. ⁸ But if her husband ^(A)overrules her on the day that he hears it, he shall make void her vow which she took and what she uttered with her lips, by which she bound herself, and the Lord will release her.

⁹ “Also any vow of a widow or a divorced woman, by which she has bound herself, shall stand against her.

¹⁰ “If she vowed in her husband’s house, or bound herself by an agreement with an oath, ¹¹ and her husband heard it, and made no response to her and did not overrule her, then all her vows shall stand, and every agreement by which she bound herself shall stand.

⁷ She also said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? ^(A)For I have borne him a son in his old age.”

Hagar and Ishmael Depart^(B)

⁸ So the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the same day that Isaac was weaned.