The Importance of Prayer

Hana, the wife of a man who had two wives, wept and would not eat. Her rival provoked her sorely to irritate her because the Lord had closed her womb. Hana made a vow: I will give my maidservant a son so that he may abide in the presence of the Lord forever. She nursed her son until she was old enough; then she took him up along with a three-year-old bull as a sacrifice. The woman gave birth to Samuel at Shiloh but did not offer him to the Lord for fear of his father's anger.