In the King James Bible, we read this:
And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, with three bullocks, and one ephah of flour, and a bottle of wine, and brought him unto the house of the LORD in Shiloh: and the child was young. And they slew a bullock, and brought the child to Eli.
1 Samuel 1:24-25
You might wonder why she brought three bullocks, and so do I, but it is consistent with the rest of the Bible, because of the amount of flour she brought, specifically one ephah. Every offering brought to the LORD had to be accompanied by a meat offering of flour mingled with oil. How much in particular?
And when thou preparest a bullock for a burnt offering, or for a sacrifice in performing a vow, or peace offerings unto the LORD:
Numbers 15:8-10
Then shall he bring with a bullock a meat offering of three tenth deals of flour mingled with half an hin of oil.
And thou shalt bring for a drink offering half an hin of wine, for an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD.
Why did she bring wine and flour? Because that is what was required. How much flour did she bring? Three tenth deals? No: there were three bullocks, so she brought nine tenth deals of flour, and the tenth, just to be sure – so a full ephah.
Is it tenth deals of an ephah? Yes. By comparison with the offering for a lamb, these tenth deals are the tenth of an ephah, and not tenths of some other measure:
And a tenth part of an ephah of flour for a meat offering, mingled with the fourth part of an hin of beaten oil.
Numbers 28:5
Pretty straightforward: more joy, more bullocks, more flour, and I guess that’s a big bottle. No, I don’t know why the oil is not mentioned.
Enter the new Bibles
Meanwhile, over in modern Bible land, where the Bible needs to be redone until scholars have the glory due to them, they have puzzled over the slightly unusual grammar of the Hebrew for “three bullocks”, and come up with a “fix” that changes this to a single “three year old bull”
Take it away NIV:
🤮 After he was weaned, she took the boy with her, young as he was, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour and a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. When they had slaughtered the bull, they brought the boy to Eli,
1 Samuel 1:24 NIV 1984 🤮
Picture poor Hannah and her weaned son, leading a three year old bull from their home in Ramathaimzophim, of mount Ephraim, over to Shiloh. It doesn’t really matter how far it is: I want to know how long it took to train that bull to follow meekly. This alone would have been the most memorable part of the story.
Meta’s AI thinks that a bull pulling a lady and a toddler would pull a white lady. Well, okay then:
Here’s an article discussing the grammar, and taking the side of “three bullocks” for reasons that are probably more clear to Hebrew speakers – Hanna and her sacrifice.
