Commentary for I Samuel 1:1

וַיְהִי֩ אִ֨ישׁ אֶחָ֜ד מִן־הָרָמָתַ֛יִם צוֹפִ֖ים מֵהַ֣ר אֶפְרָ֑יִם וּשְׁמ֡וֹ אֶ֠לְקָנָה בֶּן־יְרֹחָ֧ם בֶּן־אֱלִיה֛וּא בֶּן־תֹּ֥חוּ בֶן־צ֖וּף אֶפְרָתִֽי׃

Now there was a certain man of Ramathaim-zophim, of the hill-country of Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.

Rashi on I Samuel

And there was a man. It all follows the order: Moshe gave over the Torah to Yehoshua and Yehoshua to the Elders and each Judge to his successor until it reached Eili who gave it over to Shmuel¹I.e., the “ו” of וְאֵלֶה links the Book of Shmuel with the preceeding Book of Shoftim and serves as a link between the oral tradition as stated in the Mishnah, “…and the Elders…” as we learned (in the Mishnah), "… and the Elders [gave it over] to the Prophets…"²Maseches Avos 1:1.

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Metzudat David on I Samuel

Ramatayim of the Tzufites: That is the name of the place, due to there being two tall (ramot) mountains, viewing (tzofot) one across from the other.

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Radak on I Samuel

And there was (Vayehi) a man from Ramatayim of the Tzufites: We have already written at the beginning of the book of Yehoshua that the you will find that the [letter,] vav (usually meaning, and), is customary in the Hebrew language at the beginning of things, and likewise in the language of Yishmael (Arabic). And we also wrote about the grammar of the word, yehi, there.

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