Peninnah

Peninnah is one of the two wives of Elkanah, mother of his children, and the rival of Hannah in the opening narrative of 1 Samuel.

One of the Wives of Elkanah

The household at Ramathaim is introduced through its two-wife structure: "and he had two wives; the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah: and Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children" (1Sa 1:2). The fertility contrast between the two wives is set in the same line that names them.

At the yearly sacrifice in Shiloh, Peninnah and her household receive their portions from Elkanah: "And when the day came that Elkanah sacrificed, he gave to Peninnah his wife, and to all her sons and her daughters, portions" (1Sa 1:4). Hannah, by contrast, receives "a special portion; for he loved Hannah, but Yahweh had shut up her womb" (1Sa 1:5).

The Rival

Peninnah is then named as Hannah's rival, and her treatment of Hannah is described in the same scene: "And her rival provoked her intensely, to make her fret, because Yahweh had shut up her womb. And [as] he did so year by year, when she went up to the house of Yahweh, so she provoked her; therefore she wept, and did not eat" (1Sa 1:6-7). The provocation is recurring — yearly, at the time of pilgrimage to Shiloh — and ties Peninnah's fertility directly to Hannah's grief.