Samuel’s dedication

²¹ When Elkanah and all his household went up to make the annual sacrifice and keep his solemn promise, ²² Hannah didn’t go.

“I’ll bring the boy when he is weaned,” she told her husband, “so he can be presented to the Lord and stay there permanently. I will offer him as a nazirite forever.”^[a]

²³ “Do what seems best to you,” said her husband Elkanah. “Stay here until you’ve weaned him. But may the Lord bring to pass what you’ve^[b] promised.” So the woman stayed home and nursed her son until she had weaned him.

²⁴ When he had been weaned and was still very young,^[c] Hannah took him, along with a three-year-old bull,^[d] an ephah^[e] of flour, and a jar of wine, and brought him to the Lord’s house at Shiloh. ²⁵ They slaughtered the bull, then brought the boy to Eli.

²⁶ “Excuse me, sir!” Hannah said. “As surely as you live, sir, I am the woman who stood here next to you, praying to the Lord. ²⁷ I prayed for this boy, and the Lord gave me what I asked from him. ²⁸ So now I give this boy back to the Lord. As long as he lives, he is given to the Lord.”

Then they worshipped there before the Lord.^[f]