What Does 1 Samuel 1:17 Mean?

Then Eli answered and said, Go in wholeness, and may the God of Israel give you the request you have asked of him.

1 Samuel 1:17 · SDV

Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.

Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

Then Eli answered and said, Go in peace: and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of him.

THE KEY

Eli speaks peace over Hannah while naming her petition as something God can still give.

THE MEANING

Your request is not erased by peace; the verse holds wholeness and the desire for an answer together. The giving remains God’s act, even while the petition is still being named.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

Peace means your request has been dismissed; Eli speaks peace and names the petition in the same sentence.

THE ROOT

שְׁאֵלָתֵךְ

she'elatekha

GROWS FROM

שאל

sh-ʾ-l

Ask, inquire, request.

The Hebrew uses forms of the same root for “petition” and “asked,” binding the request to the act of asking. The English gives them different shapes, while the Hebrew lets you hear one seed in both.

ALSO GROWS

she'elah: Request, petition.

שְׁאֵלָה

This noun names the petition Eli refers to, carrying the root of asking within it.

sha'al: Ask, request.

שָׁאַל

This is the verb behind “asked,” echoing the same root as “petition.”

שָׁלוֹם

shalom

GROWS FROM

שלם

sh-l-m

Be whole, complete, or made whole.

“Peace” carries the sense of wholeness, not only quiet or the absence of conflict. Eli’s words place the petition within that wholeness without pretending it has already been granted.

ALSO GROWS

shalem: Whole, complete.

שָׁלֵם

This branch makes the fullness inside shalom audible.

shelamim: Peace offerings.

שְׁלָמִים

The shared root connects peace with a form of offering named for wholeness and well-being.

יִתֵּן

yitten

GROWS FROM

נתן

n-t-n

Give, set, place.

The word translated “grant” is a form of the ordinary Hebrew verb for giving. The request is not merely approved in speech; Eli names God as the one who can give it.

ALSO GROWS

natan: Give, set, place.

נָתַן

This is the root verb behind “grant,” with the established sense of giving or placing.

mattanah: Gift.

מַתָּנָה

This related noun makes the giving in Eli’s blessing concrete.

THE PATTERN

A request can be named and held in peace before its outcome is visible.

And she said, Let your handmaid find favor in your eyes. So the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer hers.

1 Samuel 1:18 · SDVHannah’s countenance changes after Eli’s words, while the outcome of her petition is not yet visible.

Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

Matthew 7:7 · SDVThe verse joins asking with receiving, as Eli’s blessing joins Hannah’s petition with God’s giving.

Do not be pulled apart over anything, but in everything, through prayer and need, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the wholeness of God, which overhangs all understanding, will garrison your hearts and perceptions in Jesus the Anointed One.

Philippians 4:6-7 · SDVRequests remain present before God, and peace holds the heart alongside them.

THE THREAD

For this child I prayed, and the LORD has given me the request I asked of him.

1 Samuel 1:27 · SDV

The same ⁨שאל⁩ (sh-ʾ-l, ask/request) root links “petition” and “asked” here to Hannah’s “my petition which I asked of him.” This verse makes the giving Eli names and the asking Hannah repeats part of one connected line.

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