“Therefore, I too have loaned him to Adonai — as long as he lives, he is on loan to Adonai.’ And he prostrated himself there before Adonai.”-1 Samuel 1:28
So this chapter ends with Hannah saying she has “loaned” her son Samuel to God.
That’s kind of an interesting word to use, don’t you think?
That she “loaned” her son to the Lord.
It implies that she was gonna get her son back after some time.
But that wasn’t to be the case.
And you know what’s even more interesting?
The Hebrew word that has been translated into “loan”.
It’s SHAUL or שָׁאוּל.
That’s right…
It’s the EXACT SAME WORD as the name of the first king of Israel.
However, I think there’s a much better word in this context that we should use.
That word is “surrender”.
I know from a linguistic perspective that’s not entirely accurate but contextually speaking I think it makes perfect sense.
Because think about it…
That’s exactly what Hannah did.
She fully, wholeheartedly and unconditionally SURRENDERED her son to the Lord.
And the idea actually fits in well with the ancient Middle Eastern vow-making procedures for those times.
If we were to opt for a more literal translation, the word “entrust” works just as well.
Finally, this is another one of those parts of Scripture where idiot scholars will start coming out of the woodwork.
They’ll say this whole section about Samuel’s birth and dedication was actually talking about Saul the first king of Israel.
I don’t even know how to respond to that.
I mean that’s reaching a whole new level of retardation.
If that’s true, that means Saul spent his childhood and teen years ministering at the Lord’s sanctuary in Shiloh.
There’s only one itsy bitsy problem with that claim.
There’s ZERO evidence to support it…
Either inside the Bible or outside of it!
Idiot scholars BE GONE!!!
NEXT TIME WE BEGIN 1 SAMUEL CHAPTER 2
Lol
So, nu?
If Samuel was actually Shaul, how do we explain in 1 Samuel 15 where Samuel anoints Saul king over Israel?
Did he anoint himself?
Was that an ancient form of selfie?
I don’t think so.
Yup…lol
Richoka: I have looked at 27 top dictionaries/lexicons & only 3 referred to the Hebrew word shaal as associated with Saul’s name. The majority connect the word with “inquire of God”. The majority also connect the word with sheol not shaul.
May I suggest you not be so adamant, realizing that the few 8,190 Biblical Hebrew words have to do double, triple & up to 28+ nuance-duty.
Your name calling, such as “idiotic scholar”, turns people off. We are all stupid about many things.
I have learned much through your blogs and appreciate your insights when you stick with interpreting scripture through cultural, geographical, etc. contexts.
I remind myself, its your blog…do what you want obviously
Respectfully, Dr. Terry Hayes
Regardless of how the word is transliterated or pronounced, the word is SHAUL.
I signed up here later in this year, so I only found this item while browsing thru earlier posts.
I thoroughly agree with your assessment of Rich’s name-calling (having been brought up Catholic) and “adamant ” is delightful!
But if he’s right about the Word, I’m happy to overlook his peccadillos. (Mostly! – I have kids his age)
My own research on the issue consisted of looking up the texts in my 40+ versions in eSword, including a Hebrew Study Bible Interlinear, along with Jeff Benner’s Ancient Hebrew Lexicon of the Bible, and it seems pretty obvious that 1st Sam 1: 27,28 have an extensive wordplay going on there – just go to Strongs H7586 – which is isolated as a proper name, but is also the past participle of the verb Ask (H7592 and H7593) and my Proper Name Version, based on Young’s Literal, transliterates Saul or Sha’ul as “Asked for”.
Hannah prays, and asks – God gives. She gives back – (lends), Eli receives, and Samuel (not alone) worships)
So in my ignorance, I cannot find any reason to argue with Rich!
But I love how you did it!
Shalom
DesD
(I addressed this to you, because he was pretty blunt, as usual ) Oh Hi, Rich 😘
Hi Des!
Thanks for following…
And please forgive my snarky outbursts that occur from time to time…
Be blessed!