A mother's long-awaited joy often brings an intense desire to protect and cherish her child. After finally giving birth to her only son, Hannah makes the difficult decision to break her family's annual routine of traveling to the Tabernacle. Although she normally would have made the journey herself to offer her sacrifice [מלבי״ם], she chooses to stay home and delay her formal thanksgiving to God until she can fully complete her vow and hand her son over for holy service.
Her choice to remain behind stems from both practical and profound maternal concerns. Seeing that her young boy was delicate, she worried that the harsh conditions of the journey might harm his health [רד״ק, אברבנאל]. Beyond this physical worry, she deeply understood the absolute nature of her vow. Once the boy was brought before God for the first time, he would be required to remain there permanently and could never return home [מלבי״ם]. Wanting to cherish his presence and raise him for just a little while longer before giving him away, she decided to keep him close [ביאור שטיינזלץ].
She plans to wait until the child is fully weaned, meaning the end of his nursing period when he can transition to eating regular food [מצודת ציון, ביאור שטיינזלץ]. The primary approach among commentators is that this stage typically lasts about twenty-four months. However, some suggest she intended to wait until the boy weaned himself naturally. Because a natural transition can take significantly longer than the standard two years, she hoped to extend their time together out of compassion for her tender child [אלשיך].
Once the weaning is complete, she promises to bring him to the Tabernacle, where he will stay for the rest of his days. Opinions vary on the exact meaning of this lifelong commitment. It can be understood simply as remaining in the Tabernacle for the entirety of his natural life [רד״ק], or specifically for the remaining lifetime of Eli the Priest, so the boy could serve him [מצודת דוד]. A prominent interpretive tradition, however, connects this permanent stay to the biblical laws governing Levite service. According to these rules, the active service of a Levite concludes after exactly fifty years. Based on this calculation, Samuel lived exactly fifty-two years: two initial years of nursing at his mother's home, followed by exactly fifty years of devoted holy service [רש״י, רד״ק, אברבנאל].