Year by year, as he sat there, he would see amongst the pilgrims coming up to the Feast of Tabernacles the family of ELKANAH, a man of Ramathaim-Zophim[225] in Mount Ephraim. Though a Levite in the line of Kohath (1 Chron. vi. 27–34), he affords one of the few instances of polygamy in the ranks of the lower orders. By his wife Peninnah he had several children; by Hannah, his favourite wife, he had none, which was to her a source of much trouble, and brought down upon her many taunts from her rival. On one occasion, as Eli sat on his throne at the gate, he was led more particularly to notice one of this little family group. At the close of the sacrificial Feast, unable any longer to endure the mockery of her rival and her own bitterness of heart, Hannah remained long in silent prayer at the Sanctuary. The High-priest saw her lips move, but heard no sound of her voice, as she prayed. Thinking that she had indulged to excess at the feast, he rebuked her, and bade her put away her wine from her. Then Hannah told him of her secret grief, and the aged priest, convinced of his error, quickly made amends by bestowing upon her his blessing, and expressing a hope that the God of Israel might grant the petition she had preferred (1 Sam. i. 17). The story of the wife of Manoah was, probably, not unknown to Hannah, and she too prayed that if the Lord would grant her a man-child, she would devote him as a Nazarite to His service all the days of his life. Her prayer was heard. Before the Feast of Tabernacles came round again, she had become the mother of a son, to whom she gave the appropriate name of SAMUEL, “_the Asked_ or _Heard of God_.” When he was weaned, she brought him to Shiloh, with three bullocks, an ephah of flour, and a skin bottle of wine, and having poured forth her thankfulness in an inspired hymn, presented the boy to Eli, as the child for whom she had prayed, and whom she now wished to return to the Lord (1 Sam. ii. 1–11). In striking contrast with the simplicity and innocence of the young child, who henceforth waited upon Eli, the two sons of that pontiff, HOPHNI and PHINEHAS were _sons of Belial, they knew not the Lord_. By their rapacity and lust they had filled all Israel with loathing and indignation, so that _men abhorred the offering of the Lord_. But Eli _restrained them not_, and, as years went on, their wickedness seemed only to increase in spite of his expostulations. It was a dark day in Israel, and their conduct gives us a terrible glimpse into the fallen condition of the chosen people (1 Sam. ii. 12–21).