1 Samuel 1:20
Wherefore it came to pass, when the time was come about after Hannah had conceived, that she bare a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him of the LORD. Wherefore it came to pass, when the time was come about after Hannah had conceived, that she bare a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him of the LORD.
The verse belongs to the account of Hannah's plea for a son and her vow to dedicate him to God if her request was granted. After her earnest prayer, God in divine favor answered and granted her request, so that after she conceived she bore a son. She called his name Samuel, meaning asked of God, because she had asked him of the Lord, naming him in remembrance of that request. The son she asked for was a gift she intended to raise for God, and she regarded him as consecrated to God in keeping with her vow, faithfully fulfilling her promise to dedicate him.
Hannah is thus an example of patient, prayerful, persevering fidelity. Her faithfulness stands in contrast to Eli's failure to restrain his sons. Samuel's history shows how strongly a mother's early influence can shape a child's character. Hannah's prayer, self-sacrifice, and heavenly inspiration shaped Samuel.
His training beginning with his faithful mother exemplifies the ancient Hebrew pattern in which home and school were one, with loving father and mother rather than stranger lips giving instruction. That training associated thoughts of God with all the events of daily life. It recounted with eloquence and reverence God's mighty works in delivering His people, and impressed on the young mind God's providence and the future life and acquaintance with the true, the good, and the beautiful. So shaped, Samuel became a heaven-instructed child, an incorruptible judge, and the founder of Israel's sacred schools.