Chapter 3: The Prayer Without a Voice

She left the family meal behind and walked alone toward the Tabernacle of the Lord. There, beside the doorpost, sat Eli the high priest, who had served the Lord and led Israel for many years. He watched her approach.

She was deeply distressed, and she prayed to the Lord, and she wept bitterly. Years of grief poured out of her at the threshold of His house, and not a single word of it left her lips. And in the middle of that silent prayer, she made a vow.

HANNAH“O Lord of hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your servant and remember me, and not forget Your servant, but will give to Your servant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head.”— 1 Samuel 1:11

In Israel, a vow before the Lord was no light thing. The law of Moses commanded that whoever made one must keep it without delay, for the Lord would surely require it. Hannah was not pouring out an emotional plea. She was binding herself by a promise that could not be unmade.

And the vow she chose was the heaviest of all. She promised that no razor would ever touch the boy's head. This was the mark of a man set apart to the Lord from birth, like Samson before him, dedicated to His service for the whole of his life. She was asking for the one thing she had longed for all her life, and she was promising to give him back the moment he arrived.