1 Samuel 1 · a question people ask
Was Hannah making a deal with God?
The chapter calls it a vow: "She vowed a vow" (1:11) (tap vow). It has an if and a then: "if you will indeed look at the affliction of your servant… then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life" (1:11). Jacob's vow had the same shape: "If God will be with me" (Genesis 28:20). The Law made room for vows and said they must be kept: "When you vow a vow to the LORD your God, you shall not be slack to pay it" (Deuteronomy 23:21), and "But if you refrain from making a vow, it shall be no sin in you" (Deuteronomy 23:22). The chapter doesn't praise Hannah's vow or fault it, and it doesn't say whether the vow was why her prayer was answered. It says, "the LORD remembered her" (1:19), and she named her son "Because I have asked him of the LORD" (1:20). And it says she kept her word: "Therefore I have also given him to the LORD" (1:28). Whether to call a vow like this a deal, the chapter doesn't say; its own word for it is vow.
The verses
“She vowed a vow, and said, “LORD of Armies, if you will indeed look at the affliction of your servant and remember me, and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a boy, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and no razor shall come on his head.””
“They rose up in the morning early and worshiped the LORD, then returned and came to their house to Ramah. Then Elkanah knew Hannah his wife; and the LORD remembered her. When the time had come, Hannah conceived, and bore a son; and she named him Samuel, saying, “Because I have asked him of the LORD.””
“Therefore I have also given him to the LORD. As long as he lives he is given to the LORD.” He worshiped the LORD there.”
“Jacob vowed a vow, saying, “If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and clothing to put on,”