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1 Samuel 1:8

Then said Elkanah her husband to her, Hannah, why weep you? and why eat you not? and why is your heart grieved? am not I better to you than ten sons?
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John Chrysostom

AD 407
Would you like to understand what watchfulness in prayer is? Go to Hannah, listen to her very words, “Adonai Eloi Sabaoth.” No, rather, hear what preceded those words; “they all rose up,” says the history, “from the table,” and she did not give herself right away to sleep or to repose. She appears to me even when she was sitting at the table to have partaken lightly and not to have been made heavy with food. Otherwise she could never have shed so many tears. When we are fasting and foodless, we hardly pray in such a manner, or rather never pray in this way. Much more Hannah would not ever have prayed in this fashion after a meal, unless even at the meal she had been like those that do not eat. Let men be ashamed at the example of this woman. Let those be ashamed who are suing and grasping for a kingdom, at her, praying and weeping for a little child. - "Homilies on Ephesians 24"

Tertullian of Carthage

AD 220
Thus a Godward fast is a work of reverential awe. By its means also Hannah the wife of Elkanah making suit, barren as she had been beforetime, easily obtained from God the filling of her belly, empty of food, with a son, indeed, and a prophet. - "On Fasting 7"

Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation - 2 Peter 1:20

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