The book begins by introducing us to Samuel and speaking of his miraculous birth, which we'll study tomorrow. This book tells us of the rise and fall of Israel's first king, Saul of the tribe of Benjamin, who was chosen by the nation due to his impressive outward appearance. It also describes Samuel's anointing of the young David (the Lord's choice because of David's heart for the Lord) as the next king of Israel. It is an action-packed book containing tales of love, hate, betrayal, friendship, war, political intrigue, jealousy, mental illness, and the slaying of a giant.
Chapter 1 opens with an introduction to the parents of Samuel. He will be born to a man named Elkanah and a woman named Hannah, who is infertile. This isn't the first time in the Bible we've seen the Lord granting a child to a barren woman. Abraham's wife Sarah was barren but the Lord gave her Isaac at a point in her life when she was legitimately past the age of childbearing. The Lord also miraculously enabled an unnamed barren woman in the book of Judges to conceive and give birth to Samson.
"There was a certain man from Ramathaim, a Zuphite from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. He had two wives; one was called Hannah and the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children but Hannah had none." (1 Samuel 1:1-2) I want to stop here for a moment to discuss a disagreement among scholars as to whether Samuel's father was an Ephraimite, as indicated by verse 1, or whether he was a Levite, as stated by the genealogy given in 1 Chronicles 6. This problem is usually resolved by assuming that he was indeed a Levite but that his family was from one of the Levitical towns of Ephraim. You'll recall that the Levites weren't given an allotted territory in the promised land like the other tribes. They were given cities along with the pasturelands surrounding each city. Just as one of the Levites in the book of Judges was referenced as a man of Judah (because his hometown was within the territory of Judah), Elkanah can be both a Levite and a man of Ephraim (because his hometown was within the territory of Ephraim). Whether Samuel's father was of the tribe of Levi or of the tribe of Ephraim is not vital to our story, especially since they weren't of the priestly line of the tribe of Levi and they never served as priests.
Elkanah has two wives. Plural marriage is something we've seen before in the Bible and will see again. It is not God's best plan for marriage; He clearly demonstrated His best plan for marriage when He gave Adam only one wife. Every time we see plural marriage in the Bible we'll see strife in the home. Elkanah's home is no exception.
Because Hannah is mentioned first I am going on the assumption that Elkanah married her first. I think it's likely she would have been his first, last, and only wife except that, as verse 2 says, she had no children. Elkanah probably married Peninnah because Hannah was barren.
If all this is true, it indicates something else: Elkanah married Hannah for love and Peninnah only to produce a son and heir. This doesn't mean he didn't care anything about Peninnah but she would have been acutely aware, as Jacob's wife Leah was, that the majority of his affections were focused on his other wife. Just as the Lord did in the case of Jacob's two wives, He enabled the less-loved Peninnah to bear multiple children. You'll recall that the Lord blessed Leah with multiple children while Rachel was having difficulty conceiving any at all. The same thing is happening here in 1 Samuel: Peninnah is having no trouble bearing children while her rival is dealing with infertility. The family dynamic in Elkanah's household explains why Peninnah is so mean to Hannah (we'll find her being cruel to her later in today's study) and why Hannah is so heartbroken over Peninnah's cruelty that she cannot eat.
"Year after year this man went up from his town to worship and sacrifice to the Lord Almighty at Shiloh, where Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, were priests of the Lord." (1 Samuel 1:3) Elkanah is a devout man, obedient about going up to Shiloh to present his offerings to the Lord in the manner commanded by the Lord. He always takes his whole family with him. "Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters. But to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her, and the Lord had closed her womb." (1 Samuel 1:4-5)
The Bible tells us that Elkanah loved Hannah but it doesn't tell us that he loved Peninnah. He probably admired and respected Peninnah as the mother of his children but she would have known that he didn't love her equally with Hannah. She would have known that he took a second wife only because he had been married to his first wife long enough to be certain that she was barren. This knowledge would have grated on Peninnah day after day. She would have been especially and painfully reminded of her secondary place in his heart whenever the family went up to Shiloh. Instead of giving Hannah one portion, as he gave to his other wife and to each of his children, he gave her a double portion "because he loved her" and because he felt compassion for her since "the Lord had closed her womb".
I don't think the author of our passage (who may or may not have been Samuel himself) is saying that the Lord was punishing Hannah with barrenness. We definitely will not get the sense that she is living in some type of sin for which the Lord disciplines her by not allowing her to have a child. It will be clear as we study about her today and tomorrow that she is a godly woman who loves the Lord. What I think is happening here is that the Lord, in His perfect wisdom and in His perfect timing, gives a child to this woman at just the right time and in just the right way so that no one can deny a miracle has occurred. It's important for everyone to know that Samuel's birth occurred by the help of the Lord because having this miraculous story attached to him will aid him in all that he does in the books of 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel. The fact that his birth took a miracle will underscore his calling by the Lord to be a judge and a prophet. It will give extra legitimacy and authority to his religious and political roles in the nation.
Peninnah despises Hannah because no matter how many children Peninnah has given Elkanah, he has not turned the majority of his affections toward her. Just as Leah kept hoping with each newborn baby that Jacob would finally give her his main allegiance, so also Peninnah kept hoping Elkanah would honor and revere and cherish her so much for giving him children that she would become his favorite wife. This has not happened and by now she knows it will never happen. She takes out her jealousy and disappointment on Hannah and she uses the only weapon at her disposal to do so: pointing out that Hannah cannot give Elkanah any children. "Because the Lord had closed Hannah's womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her." (1 Samuel 1:6) I feel sorry for both these women because their circumstances are not their fault. It's not Hannah's fault that she's barren. It's not her fault Elkanah wanted an heir so much that he took a second wife. It's not Peninnah's fault that Elkanah married her solely to carry on his family line; it's very likely that her father arranged this marriage and that she had no say in her choice of husband. Or, if she did choose of her own free will to enter into this marriage, she may have done it believing Elkanah would fall in love with her for giving him the children he wanted. As far as we know, unless Peninnah is just generally an ill-tempered and unlikable woman, it's not her fault that Elkanah doesn't feel about her the way he feels about Hannah.
It is Peninnah's fault that she handles her feelings in an ungodly way. Hannah appears to have everything in the world going for her other than not being able to have children. This is the only thing Peninnah can use to hurt her with and, because Peninnah is so jealous of her and so heartbroken over not having the love she craves from her husband, she uses it. She especially gives Hannah a hard time whenever the whole family goes up to Shiloh, probably because it enrages her to see Elkanah giving Hannah twice as big of a portion as he gives the mother of his children. Peninnah can't keep Elkanah from dispensing this double portion but she can keep Hannah from enjoying it. "This went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the Lord, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat. Her husband Elkanah would say to her, 'Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don't you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don't I mean more to you than ten sons?'" (1 Samuel 1:7-8)
Elkanah asks, "Isn't my love enough for you?" His love isn't enough, and a large part of why it isn't enough is because she has to share him with a second wife. Elkanah has sired more than one heir with Peninnah. We know this because the author mentioned "all her sons and daughters" in verse 4. Elkanah did not stop visiting her bedroom after his firstborn son entered the world. Granted, in an era of high infant mortality, it was important to father more than one son. But when the author uses the word "all" and uses the plural words "sons" and "daughters", I picture a very large family. I can just imagine how much it hurt Hannah every time she knew her husband was spending the night with Peninnah.
Emotions aside, there's the practical aspect of Hannah's childlessness to consider. If she outlives her husband, who will provide for her if she has no grown son to support her? Marrying again will probably not be an option for her, even if her husband dies while she's still young, because it's a known fact that she's barren. Her only chance at another marriage would probably be if an older widowed man who already has several children wants her solely for her beauty and companionship. If Elkanah dies and she is still childless, she knows Peninnah and Peninnah's children will throw her out on the street.
Hannah is feeling about as low as she can go as we conclude today's portion of Chapter 1. But her situation is not hopeless, not when she appeals to the One for whom nothing is impossible. In tomorrow's study she will go to the house of the Lord where she will speak to the One who "settles the childless woman in her home as a happy mother of children". (Psalm 113:9a) She will take her problem straight to "the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not". (Romans 4:17b)
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