What Does 1 Samuel 2:20 Mean?
And Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife, and said, May the LORD give you seed from this woman in place of the one she asked of the LORD. And they went to their house.
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.
King James wording
King James Version
And Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife, and said, The LORD give thee seed of this woman for the loan which is lent to the LORD. And they went unto their own home.THE KEY
The Hebrew word translated “loan” shares its root with “ask,” keeping the child’s request and his being given to the LORD inside one word-family.
THE MEANING
Petition and answer remain joined: what is requested from the LORD is described with the same root as what is lent to the LORD, while Eli’s blessing asks for further seed. Receiving and entrusting stand together, and the verse ends with the family returning home.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It challenges the assumption that what is entrusted to the LORD can only leave absence; Eli’s blessing speaks of further seed in place of the request.
THE ROOT
הַשְּׁאֵלָה
ha-she’elah
GROWS FROM
שׁאל
sh-ʾ-l
ask, request
“the one she asked of the LORD” in this verse is ha-she’elah. The Hebrew places the noun for “request” beside a verb from the same root: “the request which he asked of the LORD.” Beneath the KJV’s “loan which is lent,” the word-family keeps asking and entrusting connected.
ALSO GROWS
she’elah: request, petition
שְׁאֵלָה
This is the noun in the verse, linking the child’s being lent to the petition made to the LORD.
Sha’ul: asked for; Saul
שָׁאוּל
This form from the same root echoes the idea of a person as one asked for, resonating with a child received in answer to a request.
וַיְבָרֶךְ
vayvarekh
GROWS FROM
ברך
b-r-k
bless; the root also carries the image of bending the knee
“blessed” in this verse is vayvarekh. The blessing is more than a positive wish: barakh carries the bodily image of bending the knee. Eli’s words honor the parents and speak further life over them after their request has been entrusted to the LORD.
ALSO GROWS
berekh: knee
בֶּרֶךְ
The shared root gives blessing a posture of bending, rather than leaving it as an abstract sentiment.
berakhah: blessing
בְּרָכָה
This noun names the blessing Eli speaks over Elkanah and his wife.
זֶרַע
zeraʿ
GROWS FROM
זרע
z-r-ʿ
seed; sow
The word holds offspring and seed together, while its root also gives the verb “to sow.” Eli’s blessing pictures further life as seed: something received with the potential to grow.
ALSO GROWS
zeraʿ: seed, offspring
זֶרַע
The verse uses this word for the further children Eli asks the LORD to give.
zaraʿ: sow, plant seed
זָרַע
The related verb opens the image of offspring into the act of sowing and future growth.
THE PATTERN
A request made to God can be met as a gift whose source remains visible.
For this child I prayed, and the LORD has given me the request I asked of him.Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.Every good giving and every complete gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no shifting and no shadow cast by turning.THE THREAD
Therefore also I have asked him for the LORD. As long as he lives, he is asked for the LORD. And he bowed down there to the LORD.The English “lent” here and “loan” in this verse translate forms of שאל, the root of asking. Hannah’s requested child is also described through that word-family, holding petition and entrusting together.
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