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prayed; and Jehovah gave me my asking which I asked of Him. And now I (on my
part) make him the asked one unto Jehovah all the days that he lives: he is 'the asked
one' unto Jehovah!"^18 And as she so vowed and paid her vow, one of the three
bullocks which they had brought was offered a burnt-offering, symbolic of the
dedication of her child.^19 Once more Hannah "prayed;" this time not in the language
of sorrow, but in that of thanksgiving and prophetic anticipation. For was not
Samuel, so to speak, the John the Baptist of the Old Testament? and was it not fitting
that on his formal dedication unto God, she should speak words reaching far beyond
her own time, and even furnishing what could enter into the Virgin-mother's song?
"And Hannah prayed and said:
1 "My heart rejoiceth in Jehovah - Uplifted my horn in Jehovah, Wide opened my
mouth upon my foes For I rejoice in Thy salvation!^20 2 None holy as Jehovah - for
none is beside Thee, Nor is there rock as our God! 3 Multiply not speech lofty,
lofty - (Nor) insolence come out of your mouth, For God of all knowledge^21 is
Jehovah, And with Him deeds are weighed.^22 4 Bow-heroes are broken,^23 And the
stumbling girded with strength. 5 "The full hire themselves out for bread And the
hungry cease -Even till the barren bears seven, And the many-childed languisheth
away! 6 Jehovah killeth and maketh alive,^24 He bringeth down to Sheol, and
bringeth up. 7 Jehovah maketh poor and maketh rich, He layeth low and lifteth up.
8 He lifteth from the dust the weak, And from the dunghill raiseth the poor To make
them sit down with nobles.^25 And seats of honor will He assign them - For Jehovah's
are the pillars of the earth, And He hath set on them the habitable world.
9 The feet of His saints will He keep,^26 And the wicked in darkness shall be put to
silence, For not by strength shall man prevail!^27 10 Jehovah - broken they that strive
with Him, Above him (over such) in the heavens shall He thunder; Jehovah shall
judge the ends of the earth, And give strength to His King, And lift on high the horn
of His Anointed!"
And so the child and his parents parted - where parting is ever best: leaving him
"ministering unto the Lord." But yearly, as they came up to the twice-loved service
in Shiloh, they saw again the child, still serving in the courts of the Lord's house,
"girded with a linen ephod." And the gift they brought him each year from home was
that with which Hannah's love best liked to connect her absent child - "a little
Meil,"^28 or priestly robe in which to do his service. She had made him "the God-
asked," and present or absent he was ever such in her loving thoughts. But, as Eli
had prayed, instead of the "asked one," who was "asked" for Jehovah, three sons and
two daughters gladdened Hannah's heart. "But the boy Samuel grew up with
Jehovah" (1 Samuel 2:21).
(^)