18. Hannah said, “I want to be pleasing to you always.” Then she left and ate something. She was not sad anymore.
19. Early the next morning Elkanah’s family got up and worshiped the Lord. Then they went back home to Ramah. Elkanah had intimate relations with his wife Hannah. And the Lord remembered her.
20. So Hannah became pregnant, and in time she gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel. She said, “His name is Samuel because I asked the Lord for him.”
21. Every year Elkanah went to Shiloh to offer sacrifices. He went to keep the promise he had made to God. He brought his whole family with him. So once again he went up to Shiloh.
22. But Hannah did not go with him. She told him, “When the boy is old enough to eat solid food, I will take him to Shiloh. Then I will give him to the Lord. He will become a Nazirite. He will always live there at Shiloh.”
23. Elkanah, Hannah’s husband, said to her, “Do what you think is best. You may stay home until the boy is old enough to eat. May the Lord do what you have said.” So Hannah stayed at home to nurse her son until he was old enough to eat.
24. When Samuel was old enough to eat, Hannah took him to the Tent of the Lord at Shiloh. She also took a three-year-old bull, one-half bushel of flour and a leather bag filled with wine.
25. They killed the bull for the sacrifice. Then Hannah brought Samuel to Eli.
26. She said to Eli, “As surely as you live, my master, I am the same woman who stood near you praying to the Lord.
27. I prayed for this child. The Lord answered my prayer and gave him to me.
28. Now I give him back to the Lord. He will belong to the Lord all his life.” And he worshiped the Lord there.