11. and made this vow: “O Lord of hosts, if you look with pity on the hardship of your servant, if you remember me and do not forget me, if you give your handmaid a male child, I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life. No razor shall ever touch his head.”
12. As she continued praying before the Lord, Eli watched her mouth,
13. for Hannah was praying silently; though her lips were moving, her voice could not be heard. Eli, thinking she was drunk,
14. said to her, “How long will you make a drunken spectacle of yourself? Sober up from your wine!”
15. “No, my lord!” Hannah answered. “I am an unhappy woman. I have had neither wine nor liquor; I was only pouring out my heart to the Lord.
16. Do not think your servant a worthless woman; my prayer has been prompted by my deep sorrow and misery.”
17. Eli said, “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have requested.”
18. She replied, “Let your servant find favor in your eyes,” and left. She went to her quarters, ate and drank with her husband, and no longer appeared downhearted.
19. Early the next morning they worshiped before the Lord, and then returned to their home in Ramah. When they returned Elkanah had intercourse with his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her.
20. She conceived and, at the end of her pregnancy, bore a son whom she named Samuel. “Because I asked the Lord for him.”
21. The next time her husband Elkanah was going up with the rest of his household to offer the customary sacrifice to the Lord and to fulfill his vows,
22. Hannah did not go, explaining to her husband, “Once the child is weaned, I will take him to appear before the Lord and leave him there forever.”
23. Her husband Elkanah answered her: “Do what you think best; wait until you have weaned him. Only may the Lord fulfill his word!” And so she remained at home and nursed her son until she had weaned him.
24. Once he was weaned, she brought him up with her, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine, and presented him at the house of the Lord in Shiloh.
25. After they had slaughtered the bull, they brought the child to Eli.
26. Then Hannah spoke up: “Excuse me, my lord! As you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood here near you, praying to the Lord.