'Grace, favor' — the barren, beloved wife of ELKANAH, provoked year after year by her rival Peninnah, who prays silently at Shiloh until the priest Eli takes her for a drunk, vows her son to God if he is given, and, when SAMUEL is born, carries him back to the sanctuary and leaves him there (ch 1). She joins the line of Israel's once-barren mothers (Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel), and her song of the God who 'raises the poor from the dust' and 'brings low and lifts up' (2:1-10) becomes, centuries later, the model for Mary's Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55).