Now Samuel was ministering before the LORD—a boy wearing a linen ephod.
In these verses we have the good character and posture of Elkanah's family, and the bad character and posture of Eli's family. The account of these two is observably interwoven throughout this whole paragraph, as if the historian intended to set the one over against the other, that they might set off one another.
Commenting on 1 Samuel 2:11-26
Moreover, his mother made him a little coat,.... Suitable to his stature; this was an outer coat to wear over others, and this also was such an one as the priests wore; it is the same word that is used for the priest's robe, Exo 28:4, and this, it is very likely, was altogether of her own spinning, and weaving, and making up; which were...
SAMUEL'S MINISTRY. (Sa1 2:18-26) But Samuel ministered before the Lord, being a child--This notice of his early services in the outer courts of the tabernacle was made to pave the way for the remarkable prophecy regarding the high priest's family.