Hannah was one of the two wives of Elkanah, and she had no children, while the other wife Peninnah had many and used it as a weapon of cruelty. Year after year Hannah's grief deepened. On one annual pilgrimage to the tabernacle at Shiloh, she rose in bitterness of soul and prayed, weeping, vowing: "O LORD of hosts, if You will... give Your maidservant a male child, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life" (1 Samuel 1:11). Eli the high priest thought she was drunk because she was praying silently, moving her lips. Hannah defended herself: "I am a woman of sorrowful spirit... I have poured out my soul before the LORD." Eli blessed her and God answered. She bore Samuel, weaned him, and took the small boy back to Shiloh to fulfill her vow. Her prayer-song in 1 Samuel 2 is one of the most stunning poems in Scripture — rejoicing in a God who overturns the proud and lifts up the lowly. Mary's Magnificat centuries later echoes it almost line by line. Hannah is a masterclass in faithful prayer: pouring out your soul honestly, making costly vows and keeping them, giving back the answered prayer in worship. God eventually gave her five more children.