TO ASK, request — and, in a special sense, to LEND or give on loan. The verb generates the whole naming of 1 Samuel: Hannah 'ASKED' Samuel of Jehovah (1:20), and then 'LENT' him back — 'he is SHA'UL (lent/asked) to Jehovah' (1:28). ⚠️ The narrator's folk-etymology links the name SAMUEL to sha'al, though the name more likely means 'name of God' or 'God has heard'; and the wordplay reaches past Samuel to SAUL (Sha'ul, 'the asked-for one'), the king a people will 'ask' for (ch 8). One root quietly names the prophet, the gift, and the whole book's theme. ⭐ Deuteronomy 10:12 puts the same plain verb in God's mouth about himself, and it matters because of a verse it is constantly quoted beside. Micah 6:8 (not yet on these pages) asks what Jehovah doresh from you — seeks, requires, demands. Deuteronomy asks what he sho'el, ASKS, and the phrase sho'el me'immakh stands once in the whole Hebrew Bible. The two sentences are close in sense and are not the same sentence. ⚠ The older English shelf imports Micah's force anyway — KJV, ASV, Geneva and Douay-Rheims all print 'require' — while every modern witness on both shelves says ask, which makes this one of the places where the newer editions are the more exact ones. → first discussed at 1 Samuel 1:20