Each year his mother would make him a little robe and bring it to him when she went with her husband to offer the annual sacrifice.
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
And Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife,.... Not only the first time they brought Samuel to him, and left him with him; but every year they came to worship, as the Jewish commentators mostly interpret it: and said, the Lord give thee seed of this woman; children by her, year after year: for the loan which is lent to the Lord; instead of Samuel, who...
his mother made him a little coat, and brought it to him from year to year--Aware that he could not yet render any useful service to the tabernacle, she undertook the expense of supplying him with wearing apparel. All weaving stuffs, manufacture of cloth, and making of suits were anciently the employment of women.