It is evident from verse 3 that they were a devout family. The yearly pilgrimage to the

Tabernacle of the Lord would be the celebration of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the

Passover. It was the great national day of remembrance of the deliverance of Israel from

Egypt, the land of bondage, by their God, Jehovah. There were comparatively few at that

time who honoured the name of the Lord like Elkanah. Many of the rulers and priests

openly ignored their God, and worshipped idols, so the people fell away and worshipped

the gods of the heathen nations around them.

It is interesting to note that here, for the first time in Scripture, we read the title "the

Lord of hosts", Jehovah Sabaoth. It occurs some 260 times in the O.T., but only once in

the New in the epistle of James. It is a glorious title: Isaiah uses it about 60 times and

Jeremiah about 80. The implication is that Jehovah was the God of all the hosts on earth

and in the heavens. What a tremendous inspiration this would be to the few and feeble

host of Israel when their enemies were strong and powerful.  It would be a great

encouragement to know their God to be the Eternal One, Whose sovereign power

extended over all men, angels, sun, moon, and stars, the earth, and the heavens

themselves. The Lord of Hosts: what a mighty title that Name implies!

Shiloh was the sacred city in Ephraim where Joshua had the Tabernacle pitched when

he took possession of the land of Canaan. It would be considered the safest place, and

protected by the mightiest tribe. The priests, the tribe of Levi, lived here, and Israel

should have obeyed the command of the Lord to come up yearly to worship and to

sacrifice. Few did at this time, but Elkanah remained faithful to his God. Whatever

others did or did not do, his resolution was that he and his household should obey and

serve the Lord. So this pilgrimage to Shiloh was made every year.

Eli was the High Priest at this time, and his two sons Hophni and Phinehas were

among the priests. Both were notoriously evil men, debasing the high office they held

and a prime cause of the indifference of the children of Israel towards Jehovah during this

period of their history. Eli must have suffered terribly because of the conduct of these

sinful sons of his. His efforts to correct them fell on heedless ears, and serves to

illustrates the terrible state of corruption into which the priesthood had fallen.

Outwardly Elkanah's household was quiet and orderly, yet it was a divided family,

and the divisions within it carried with them both guilt and grief. The two wives were

bitterly opposed to each other. Peninnah, like Leah the wife of Jacob, had many children,

but she was always very much the second wife and the less beloved. Hannah, like

Rachel, was childless, but she was very dear to Elkanah, and he let her and others know

that she was held so in his regard. Because of her advantage, Peninnah grew haughty and

insolent; Hannah, on the other hand, melancholy and discontented. Elkanah did all he

could to raise Hannah's spirits under her affliction. He invariably served her the choicest

portion on feast days; but it was an unhappy household.

After one of these sacrificial meals, Hannah left the table and went alone into the

courtyard of the Tabernacle, and in great bitterness of spirit she prayed that the Lord

might give her a son, and we read that she "vowed a vow". This vow contained two