Bible Strands
1 Samuel 1:16
Do not take your servant for a wicked woman, for all this time I have been praying out of the depth of my anguish and grief.”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Hannah addresses Eli the priest at the tabernacle, immediately correcting his assumption that her silent, tearful posture indicated drunkenness.
The words — The command אַל־ תִּתֵּן (al-titen) literally means “may not you give,” while the phrase בַּת־ בְּלִיַּעַל (bat-belial) literally translates “daughter of worthlessness.”
The thread — The term בְּלִיַּעַל (belial) appears in 1 Samuel 2:12 regarding Eli’s sons and in Deuteronomy 13:13 concerning men who lead others astray. Hannah’s request to measure her sorrow parallels Job 6:2, which describes weighing grief against calamity.
Why it lands — The text explicitly states that prolonged prayer born of anguish must not be judged as moral failure, separating the emotion of grief from the character of the one praying.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial: for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief have I spoken hitherto.
Cross-references
- 1 Samuel 2:12 Now the sons of Eli were wicked men; they had no regard for the LORD
- Deuteronomy 13:13 that wicked men have arisen from among you and have led the people of their city astray, saying, “Let us go and serve other gods” (which you have not known),
- Job 6:2 “If only my grief could be weighed and placed with my calamity on the scales.
- Job 10:1 “I loathe my own life; I will express my complaint and speak in the bitterness of my soul.
- Matthew 12:34 You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.
- 1 Samuel 10:27 But some worthless men said, “How can this man save us?” So they despised him and brought him no gifts; but Saul remained silent about it.
- 1 Samuel 25:25 My lord should pay no attention to this scoundrel Nabal, for he lives up to his name: His name means Fool, and folly accompanies him. I, your servant, did not see my lord’s young men whom you sent.