Then the LORD called Samuel, and he said, “Here I am!”
To make way for the account of God's revealing himself first to Samuel, we are here told, 1. How industrious Samuel was in serving God, according as his place and capacity were (Sa1 3:1): The child Samuel, though but a child, ministered unto the Lord before Eli. It was an aggravation of the wickedness of Eli's sons that the child Samuel shamed them.
Commenting on 1 Samuel 3:1-10
That the Lord called Samuel,.... By a voice which came forth from the most holy place, from between the cherubim, the seat of the divine Majesty: and he answered, here am I; which was not intended to declare the place where he was, but to express his readiness and cheerfulness to do any thing that was required of him.
That the LORD called Samuel: and he answered, Here [am] I. (e) Josephus writes that Samuel was 12 years old when the Lord appeared to him.