Hannah
    favour, grace, one of the wives of Elkanah the Levite, and the
    mother of Samuel (1 Sam. 1; 2). Her home was at
    Ramathaim-zophim, whence she was wont every year to go to
    Shiloh, where the tabernacle had been pitched by Joshua, to
    attend the offering of sacrifices there according to the law
    (Ex. 23:15; 34:18; Deut. 16:16), probably at the feast of the
    Passover (comp. Ex. 13:10). On occasion of one of these "yearly"
    visits, being grieved by reason of Peninnah's conduct toward
    her, she went forth alone, and kneeling before the Lord at the
    sanctuary she prayed inaudibly. Eli the high priest, who sat at
    the entrance to the holy place, observed her, and
    misunderstanding her character he harshly condemned her conduct
    (1 Sam. 1:14-16). After hearing her explanation he retracted his
    injurious charge and said to her, "Go in peace: and the God of
    Israel grant thee thy petition." Perhaps the story of the wife
    of Manoah was not unknown to her. Thereafter Elkanah and his
    family retired to their quiet home, and there, before another
    Passover, Hannah gave birth to a son, whom, in grateful memory
    of the Lord's goodness, she called Samuel, i.e., "heard of God."
    After the child was weaned (probably in his third year) she
    brought him to Shiloh into the house of the Lord, and said to
    Eli the aged priest, "Oh my lord, I am the woman that stood by
    thee here, praying unto the Lord. For this child I prayed; and
    the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him:
    therefore I also have granted him to the Lord; as long as he
    liveth he is granted to the Lord" (1 Sam. 1:27, 28, R.V.). Her
    gladness of heart then found vent in that remarkable prophetic
    song (2:1-10; comp. Luke 1:46-55) which contains the first
    designation of the Messiah under that name (1 Sam. 2:10,
    "Annointed" = "Messiah"). And so Samuel and his parents parted.
    He was left at Shiloh to minister "before the Lord." And each
    year, when they came up to Shiloh, Hannah brought to her absent
    child "a little coat" (Heb. meil, a term used to denote the
    "robe" of the ephod worn by the high priest, Ex. 28:31), a
    priestly robe, a long upper tunic (1 Chr. 15:27), in which to
    minister in the tabernacle (1 Sam. 2:19; 15:27; Job 2:12). "And
    the child Samuel grew before the Lord." After Samuel, Hannah had
    three sons and two daughters.



 Hannah, gracious; merciful; he that gives