They killed the bull, and brought the child to Eli.
Samuel may have been as old as three years before Hannah weaned him and brought him to the sanctuary (1 Samuel 1:23; cf. 2 Maccabees 7:27). The three-year-old bull and the flour (1 Samuel 1:24) were evidently for a burnt offering (an offering that represented the worshipper’s total dedication to God, Leviticus 1) and for food respectively. The Hebrew word for flour used here, qemah, never occurs in a sacrificial context except once, where it is unaccompanied by an animal sacrifice (Numbers 5:15). Hannah could have offered a less expensive animal sacrifice (Leviticus 12:6), but she was very grateful.