Theodidacti

A Character Study of Hannah

Elkanah had two wives—Hannah and Peninnah. The former was barren and the latter had children (1Sa 1:2). The latter also provoked Hannah because of her infertility, grieving her beyond comfort. Elkanah’s love for her and his gifts seemed to mean little to her. She only wanted a child. She was inconsolable, reduced to fasting and weeping. Still, after an attempt by her husband to soothe her feelings, she evidently took food. This meal took place in Shiloh, where Eli the priest lived and where religious sacrifice was made.

Hannah’s husband was a religious man, if making a short annual pilgrimage to Shiloh for the purpose of sacrificial offering is tantamount to piety. His wife, Hannah was also devout, if perhaps self-seeking, promising God that she would dedicate her child if he would open her womb. Whether she realized the party responsible for her barrenness or not is unclear. If she did not know it was God who had closed her womb, she believed he could reverse the situation. But how could a child be so important if she would then give the child back to God? Was it that she simply wanted Peninnah to stop irritating her? Perhaps she did not want to be pitied by Elkanah and others? Did she need the security of progeny in case something happened to Elkanah’s double portion (v5)? Whatever the reason, she would eventually give her firstborn child to God.

After dining and drinking in Shiloh an undisclosed amount—though if it were a double portion, it could have been a goodly quantity of not only meat but wine as well—Hannah goes to the temple where Eli was presiding. Perhaps with good reason Eli accuses her of being drunk. He had undoubtedly seen many people come in to the temple from times of feasting a bit too much. He suspects Hannah is just such a tourist and accuses her of being drunk. Hannah defends herself and states she has not imbibed any alcoholic beverage. Instead she is upset again; evidently the nice meal with Elkanah did not assuage her grief. Once more, she focuses on gaining a child and this time she does so at God’s doorstep. She carries her heartache as directly to God as she can, right to the Shiloh temple, mouthing a silent prayer to God and more importantly, a prayer that came from the heart (v13) of a barren woman. If Sarai, Rebekah, Rachel, Samson’s mother, Elizabeth, and arguably Mary and the people called Israel and the Bride of Christ (Rev 21:2) are any indicators, God loves to answer the prayers of desolate women (Isa 54:1). Indeed, the psalmist sings that, “He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children.” (Psa 113:9 ESV) Perhaps they were all merely persistent, not to mention God being gracious. Without question though, Hannah is determined. She will not give up even when Eli tells her to dry up. She pleads her case to the priest and he gives her a blessing. He either knows of God’s beneficence to would-be-mothers or just wants to get rid of her. Regardless, without consulting God, he seems to imply some future divine intervention.

The text indicates Hannah too may have thought God would soon answer her prayer since nothing else is said of her weeping and not eating. In fact, it only states that she went home and had sex with her husband—probably not an activity for the disconsolate. In fact, God had heard her plea and she conceived. In another act of devotion, Hannah names the child Samuel (“heard of God”), indicating she believed that she had conceived because God had heard her.

Once Samuel was weaned (perhaps two to three years) she took him to Shiloh and offered both a bull (ESV, or three bulls, KJV; a three-year old bull is poetic if Samuel is also three) and a son to the Lord. Along with these sacrifices comes a song for both God and Peninnah (since her “mouth derides her enemies” {2:1} and she tells the proud to be silent {v3}). At the end of the song, Elkanah goes home (we are left to assume Hannah went with him at this time) but annually Samuel’s mother remembered the boy she had lent to God with a new suit of clothing. Furthermore, God remembered faithful and determined Hannah with five more children (2:21).