What Does 1 Samuel 2:21 Mean?
And the LORD visited Hannah, so that she conceived, and bore three sons and two daughters. And the child Samuel grew before the LORD.
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 the LORD visited Hannah, so that she conceived, and bare three sons and two daughters. And the child Samuel grew before the LORD.THE KEY
The LORD’s “visit” is active attention that becomes life, and that life keeps growing in the same presence.
THE MEANING
This verse meets the reader with divine attention that has consequences in Hannah’s life: she conceives, and Samuel continues to grow before the LORD. The gift does not end at its arrival; its life unfolds within the presence that attends it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that fulfillment is a single finished moment: the life that arrives continues to grow before the LORD.
THE ROOT
פָּקַד
pāqad
GROWS FROM
פקד
The root פ־ק־ד (p-q-d; pāqad) carries the sense of attending to, taking account of, or mustering.
“visited” in this verse is pāqad. The verb פָּקַד (pāqad, to attend to or visit) holds more than the idea of appearing briefly: it can name active regard. Here that regard is made visible in Hannah’s conception, while Samuel’s growth continues before the LORD.
ALSO GROWS
pāqīd: An officer or overseer.
פָּקִיד
This related noun carries the sense of oversight, showing the root’s link between attention and responsibility.
mifqād: A muster or numbering.
מִפְקָד
A muster takes account of those gathered; this branch shows how the root can hold the idea of actively attending to what is present.
THE PATTERN
The LORD’s visitation is active regard that brings consequential change into view.
And the LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did for Sarah as he had spoken.And the people leaned their weight on it, and they heard that the LORD had visited the children of Israel, and that he had seen their bending low. Then they bent their heads and bowed down.Let the LORD God of Israel be spoken well of, for he has looked upon and redeemed his people,THE THREAD
What is a frail one that you remember him, and the son of man that you visit him?Psalm 8:4 uses the same Hebrew verb פקד (pāqad, attend to or visit) when asking why God attends to humanity. Here that wide attention is shown in Hannah’s life as conception and Samuel’s continued growth.
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