After the opening gloss, this entry closely follows Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 5.346-350: see web address 1. Exact quotations from Josephus (without distinguishing minor word-order variations) are indicated here by quotation marks, with ellipses included in footnotes.
[1] Josephus uses the term qeai/thtos, which LSJ (s.v., web address 2) translates as "obtained from the gods," but which Thackeray and Marcus in the Loeb edition of Josephus translate as "asked of God," which is certainly in keeping with the Biblical text (1 Samuel [LXX 1 Kingdoms] 1:20). Other etymologies existed in the later Christian books of sacred names. For example, "request(ed) from God" (going along with biblical derivation), "servant who listens to God" (adding the term "servant," perhaps from 1 Sam 3:9, and identifying the Hebrew root of the element שמו Shemu as though from שמע shma`, the Hebrew word for "hear"); "law of their God" (taking שמו Shemu as the Hebrew שׂים sim "place, put" [sc. "decree"]) or "there is God himself" (taking "Shemu" as from the Hebrew word שם sham, there"); and finally, "request or listening to God" (Lagarde, p. 184, lines 51, 55; p. 198, line 53; p. 204, line 30). On the derivation of "Sam" to a Hebrew word meaning law, see Wutz, vol. 1, p.116.
[2] 1 Samuel 1:22-28.
[3] The father of Samuel and husband of Hanna.
[4] cf. 1 Samuel 2:21. Josephus reads "other sons and three daughters," according to the Loeb edition, which does indicate a textual problem at this point, namely, the omission of "other." Niese's text follows the manuscripts that omit "other." I did not have access to the critical apparatus of Niese's edition, but it should be checked. The Suda may perhaps preserve here a more original fragment of Josephus; otherwise it is a correction of Josephus to conform to biblical data. The former seems a likely possibility since the Suda quotes Josephus and not the biblical text, which reads "and she bore in addition three sons and two daughters" (Septuagint [Rahlfs], in agreement with the Hebrew Bible). The Suda and Josephus use the verb gi/nomai; the LXX uses ti/ktw.
[5] The age is not mentioned in Scripture.
[6] The Suda omits te, which Josephus has here.
[7] The Suda omits the verb "said."
[8] The Suda omits the phrase found in Josephus: "surpassing the speech or belief of them that are present."
[9] Compare 1 Samuel 3:10-14. The Suda has minor textual variations from Josephus in this last phrase.