And Elkanah went to Ramah to his house. And the child did minister unto the LORD before Eli the priest.
Ver. 11. And the child did minister unto the Lord.] He did such offices as he was able about the tabernacle; which was the more commendable in young Samuel to be so sedulous, because Eli's sons were at the same time so corrupt and dissolute. The word here rendered child, is by the Dutch translated Der knaben, the knave; which with them signifieth child or servant; and so it did in old English, not as now, a wicked varlet. And therefore manifest wrong is done to John Wycliffe by Bellarmine and others, because that, disallowing the invocation of saints, he called them servants, knaves, which was then a good word, - not gods, as the Papists made them.