Hannah

Hannah is the mother of Samuel, the wife of Elkanah of Ramathaim, and the voice behind the song that opens 1 Samuel. Her story moves from barrenness and humiliation through a vow at Shiloh, an answered prayer, the giving up of her son to Yahweh, a hymn of praise, and continuing visits to the boy she had let go.

A Barren Wife at Shiloh

The narrator places Hannah inside a polygamous household whose yearly rhythm is pilgrimage to Shiloh. Elkanah of "Ramathaim of the Zuphites, of the hill-country of Ephraim," has two wives — Peninnah, who has children, and Hannah, who does not (1Sa 1:1-2). The household goes up year by year "to worship and to sacrifice to Yahweh of hosts in Shiloh," where Eli's sons Hophni and Phinehas are priests (1Sa 1:3). At the sacrificial meal Elkanah distributes portions to Peninnah and her children, but to Hannah he gives "a special portion; for he loved Hannah, but Yahweh had shut up her womb" (1Sa 1:4-5). The same verses that name Elkanah's affection name Yahweh as the cause of her childlessness — and the rival wife exploits exactly that wound: "her rival provoked her intensely, to make her fret, because Yahweh had shut up her womb" (1Sa 1:6). The provocation is annual, attached to the pilgrimage itself, so that Hannah weeps and refuses to eat in the very place she comes to worship (1Sa 1:7). Elkanah's attempted comfort — "Am I not better to you than ten sons?" (1Sa 1:8) — does not touch the grief.

The Vow

After the meal Hannah rises and goes to the temple, where Eli is sitting "on his seat by the door-post of the temple of Yahweh" (1Sa 1:9). The text then names what she does in two parallel clauses — she is "in bitterness of soul, and prayed to Yahweh, and wept intensely" (1Sa 1:10), and she vows a vow:

"O Yahweh of hosts, if you will indeed look at the affliction of your slave, and remember me, and not forget your slave, but will give to your slave a man-child, then I will give him to Yahweh all the days of his life, and no razor will come upon his head" (1Sa 1:11).

The vow is conditional in form ("if … then …") but the conditions are addressed entirely to Yahweh; the offering is the child himself, given back for the whole of his life, and bound by what reads as Nazirite language — no razor on his head. The petitioner is also self-described as "your slave" three times in a single sentence.

Misread by the Priest

Eli watches her mouth (1Sa 1:12). What he sees does not match what is happening: "Now Hannah, she spoke in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice wasn't heard: therefore Eli thought she had been drunk" (1Sa 1:13). His rebuke is blunt: "How long will you be drunk? Put your wine away from you" (1Sa 1:14). Hannah's reply is the hinge of the scene:

"No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit: I have drank neither wine nor strong drink, but I poured out my soul before Yahweh. Don't count your slave for a wicked woman; for out of the abundance of my complaint and my provocation I have spoken until now" (1Sa 1:15-16).

She names the provocation that has been done to her at the same moment she defends herself against the misreading. Eli's response shifts from rebuke to blessing — "Go in peace; and the God of Israel grant your petition that you have asked of him" (1Sa 1:17) — and Hannah leaves: "the woman went her way, and ate; and her countenance was no more [sad]" (1Sa 1:18).

Samuel Born and Named

The household worships and returns to Ramah; in time Hannah becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son, "and she named him Samuel, [saying,] Because I have asked him of Yahweh" (1Sa 1:19-20). The naming carries the vow inside it — the child's name is the prayer that produced him. When the next year's sacrifice comes around, Elkanah goes up to Shiloh "to offer to Yahweh the yearly sacrifice, and his vow," but Hannah stays home: "[I will not go up] until the lad is weaned; and then I will bring him, that he may appear before Yahweh, and remain there forever" (1Sa 1:21-22). The weaning is also the timeline of the vow's payment.

Dedication at the Temple

When Samuel is weaned Hannah brings him to Shiloh "with a three-year-old bull, and one ephah of meal, and a bottle of wine" (1Sa 1:24); they slay the bull and bring the boy to Eli. She introduces herself by recalling the earlier scene: "I am the woman who stood here by you, praying to Yahweh" (1Sa 1:26), and then states what the prayer had been and what she is now doing about it:

"I prayed for this lad; and Yahweh has given me my petition which I asked of him: therefore I also have granted him to Yahweh; as long as he lives he is granted to Yahweh" (1Sa 1:27-28).

The narrative closes the dedication scene with the lad himself: "And he worshiped Yahweh there" (1Sa 1:28).

The Song

Hannah's praise opens 1 Samuel 2 and is given as direct prayer:

"And Hannah prayed, and said: My heart exults in Yahweh; My horn is exalted in Yahweh; My mouth is enlarged over my enemies; Because I rejoice in your salvation. There is none holy like Yahweh; For there is none besides you, Neither is there any rock like our God" (1Sa 2:1-2).

The song moves quickly from her own situation to a warning addressed in the plural — "Don't talk anymore so exceedingly proudly; Don't let arrogance come out of your⁺ mouth; For Yahweh is a God of knowledge, And by him actions are weighed" (1Sa 2:3) — and from there to a sequence of reversals: bows of mighty men broken, the stumbling girded with strength, the full hiring themselves out for bread, the hungry no longer hungry, "the barren has borne seven; And she who has many sons languishes" (1Sa 2:4-5). Hannah's own reversal — barren mother, fruitful rival — is there in line, but it is generalised. The same structure of reversal is then attributed directly to Yahweh:

"Yahweh kills, and makes alive: He brings down to Sheol, and brings up. Yahweh makes poor, and makes rich: He brings low, he also lifts up. He raises up the poor out of the dust, He lifts up the needy from the dunghill, To make them sit with princes, And inherit the throne of glory: For the pillars of the earth are Yahweh's, And he has set the world on them" (1Sa 2:6-8).

The closing lines reach further than her household:

"He will keep the feet of his holy ones; But the wicked will be put to silence in darkness; For by strength no man will prevail. Yahweh — He will shatter the ones who contend against him; Above him [who contends] he thunders in heaven: Yahweh will judge the ends of the earth; And he will give strength to his king, And exalt the horn of his anointed" (1Sa 2:9-10).

The song that begins with one woman's vindication ends with judgment on the whole earth and the strength given to a king and his anointed — language that runs ahead of the narrative, since Israel has no king at this point in the book.

Visits and More Children

The story does not end with the dedication. While Samuel ministers at the sanctuary — "girded with a linen ephod" (1Sa 2:18) — Hannah continues the yearly pilgrimage and clothes him as he grows: "Moreover his mother made him a little robe, and brought it to him from year to year, when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice" (1Sa 2:19). Eli blesses the parents on these visits: "Yahweh give you [Elkanah] seed of this woman in place of the petition which he asked of Yahweh. And they went to their own home" (1Sa 2:20). The blessing is honored: "And Yahweh visited Hannah, and she became pregnant, and gave birth to three sons and two daughters. And the lad Samuel grew before Yahweh" (1Sa 2:21). The woman who came to Shiloh childless leaves it the mother of six — five at home, one at the sanctuary — and the verb that opened her grief, "shut up," is answered by the verb that closes the cycle, "visited."