Most English translations, following the Greek Septuagint, affirm that Hannah took one bull who was three years old. The Hebrew text itself, however, indicates that she took three bulls. As further evidence of this is the fact that an ephah of flour was about three times the amount normally offered with a single bull (Numbers 15:8–9).1 Three bulls would have been a very extravagant gift at the time,2 possibly too extravagant for the occasion which is why most scholars accept one three-year-old bull.3
24 And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine, and she brought him to the house of the LORD at Shiloh. And the child was young.