The Fallible Study Bible

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1 Samuel1:1–8

Elkanah and His Wives

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1 Samuel 1:1–8 — Elkanah and His Wives. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

1

Now there was a man named Elkanah who was from Ramathaim-zophim in the hill country of Ephraim. He was the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

way·hî ’e·ḥāḏ ’îš ū·šə·mōw ’el·qā·nāh min- hā·rā·mā·ṯa·yim ṣō·w·p̄îm mê·har ’ep̄·rā·yim ben- yə·rō·ḥām ben- ’ĕ·lî·hū ben- tō·ḥū ḇen- ṣūp̄ ’ep̄·rā·ṯî

Word by word19 · parsed
וַיְהִי֩way·hîNow there wasH1961
√ hâyâh — to exist, iConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
hâyâh — to exist, to become (Qal consecutive imperfect) The narrative waw that opens Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Kings, Esther, Ezra and Ezekiel. Ellicott treats it as a stock formula; Cambridge treats it as a seam stitching this book to Judges. ⚙ Either way the effect in Hebrew is the same: the book of the kingdom begins mid-sentence, as if Israel's story had never stopped running.
אֶחָ֜ד’e·ḥāḏaH259
√ ʼechâd — properly, united, iNumbermasculine singular
ʼechâd — properly, united; one Here the numeral works as an indefinite: “a certain man.” Light in weight, but worth noting that Hebrew has no article for “a” and must borrow the word for one.
אִ֨ישׁ’îšmanH376
√ ʼîysh — a man as an individual or a male personNounmasculine singular
Common noun ʼîysh (H376), “a man as an individual.” The same word returns at v. 3 (“the man, that one”) and v. 8 (“her man,” i.e. her husband).
וּשְׁמ֡וֹū·šə·mōwnamedH8034
√ shêm — an appellation, as amark or memorial of individualityConjunctive wawNounmasculine singular constructthird person masculine singular
shêm — an appellation, a mark or memorial of individuality Shêm governs this chapter: the two wives are introduced by shêm twice in v. 2, and the child not yet born will be named for a hearing. The narrator withholds nothing about identity and everything about outcome.
אֶ֠לְקָנָה’el·qā·nāhElkanahH511
√ ʼElqânâh — Elkanah, the name of several IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular
מִן־min-[who was] fromH4480
√ min — properly, a part ofPreposition
הָרָמָתַ֛יִםhā·rā·mā·ṯa·yimvvvH7436
√ Râmâthayim Tsôwphîym — Ramathajim-Tsophim, a place in PalestineArticleNounproperfeminine singular
Râmâthayim Tsôwphîym — Ramathaim-Zophim, a place The dual “two heights,” with Zophim, watchers. The commentators offer three derivations: hills that watch each other (Ellicott's preference), watch-towers on the summits (Benson, Poole), or the Zuphites descended from Zuph (Barnes, K&D, Pulpit). Cambridge calls the site “the most disputed problem of sacred topography”; K&D argues for er-Râm, the Ramah of Benjamin.
צוֹפִ֖יםṣō·w·p̄îmRamathaim-zophimH7436
√ Râmâthayim Tsôwphîym — Ramathajim-Tsophim, a place in PalestineNounproperfeminine singular
מֵהַ֣רmê·harin the hill countryH2022
√ har — a mountain or range of hills (sometimes used figuratively)Preposition-mNounmasculine singular construct
mê·har — “from the hill-country of.” Cambridge notes the range “extended southwards to the territory of Benjamin,” which is why a Benjamite Ramah can be called Ephraim's.
אֶפְרָ֑יִם’ep̄·rā·yimof EphraimH669
√ ʼEphrayim — Ephrajim, a son of JosephNounpropermasculine singular
בֶּן־ben-[He was] the sonH1121
√ bên — a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etcNounmasculine singular construct
ben in the construct chain, repeated four times without a single verb. The genealogy is a ladder, not a sentence.
יְרֹחָ֧םyə·rō·ḥāmof JerohamH3395
√ Yᵉrôchâm — Jerocham, the name of seven or eight IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular
בֶּן־ben-the sonH1121
√ bên — a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etcNounmasculine singular construct
אֱלִיה֛וּא’ĕ·lî·hūof ElihuH453
√ ʼĔlîyhûw — Elihu, the name of one of Job's friends, and of three IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular
בֶּן־ben-the sonH1121
√ bên — a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etcNounmasculine singular construct
תֹּ֥חוּtō·ḥūof TohuH8459
√ Tôchûw — Tochu, an IsraeliteNounpropermasculine singular
בֶן־ḇen-the sonH1121
√ bên — a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etcNounmasculine singular construct
צ֖וּףṣūp̄of ZuphH6689
√ Tsûwph — Tsuph or Tsophai or Tsiph, the name of an Israelite and of a place in PalestineNounpropermasculine singular
Tsûwph — Zuph, an Israelite and a place A rare name (the Verifier finds it in only 4 verses). Pulpit: Zuph “was a person of sufficient power and energy to give his name to the whole district; called the land of Zuph in 1 Samuel 9:5.” The genealogy therefore stops exactly where the family's settlement in Canaan began — Cambridge, following the Speaker's Commentary, reckons Zuph the seventh from Levi and so a contemporary of the conquest.
אֶפְרָתִֽי׃’ep̄·rā·ṯîan EphraimiteH673
√ ʼEphrâthîy — an Ephrathite or an EphraimiteNounpropermasculine singular
ʼEphrâthîy — an Ephrathite or an Ephraimite The single most contested word in the verse. Ellicott and Pulpit read it civilly (an Ephraimite, because the Kohathite settlements lay in Ephraim, Joshua 21:20); Benson, Poole and JFB read it geographically (of Ephratha, that is Bethlehem). Gill, following Kimchi, attaches it not to Elkanah but to Zuph. ⚙ The narrator has told us the man's town, his hill country, five generations and his tribal label, and still not told us the one thing the chapter is about.
2

He had two wives, one named Hannah and the other Peninnah. And Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

wə·lōw šə·tê nā·šîm ’a·ḥaṯ šêm ḥan·nāh wə·šêm haš·šê·nîṯ pə·nin·nāh lip̄·nin·nāh way·hî yə·lā·ḏîm ū·lə·ḥan·nāh ’ên yə·lā·ḏîm

Word by word15 · parsed
וְלוֹ֙wə·lōwHe had
Conjunctive wawPrepositionthird person masculine singular
שְׁתֵּ֣יšə·têtwoH8147
√ shᵉnayim — twoNumberfeminine dual construct
shᵉnayim — two (feminine dual construct) Cambridge: polygamy was “tolerated by the Mosaic law as an existing custom (Deuteronomy 21:15-17)” though “at variance with the original institution of marriage (Genesis 2:24).” Ellicott traces the first violation to Lamech (Genesis 4:19) and notes that the Law “simply seek[s] to restrict and limit it.” JFB is blunter: Elkanah was a Levite “and a good man,” and “practised polygamy.”
נָשִׁ֔יםnā·šîmwivesH802
√ ʼishshâh — a womanNounfeminine plural
אַחַת֙’a·ḥaṯoneH259
√ ʼechâd — properly, united, iNumberfeminine singular
שֵׁ֤םšêmnamedH8034
√ shêm — an appellation, as amark or memorial of individualityNounmasculine singular construct
חַנָּ֔הḥan·nāhHannahH2584
√ Channâh — Channah, an IsraelitessNounproperfeminine singular
Channâh — Hannah, an Israelitess “Grace” or “favour.” Barnes, Ellicott, Cambridge and Pulpit all identify it with the New Testament “Anna” of Luke 2:36, and with the Anna of Virgil's Carthage, the Punic tongue being close kin to Hebrew. ⚙ The chapter's first irony is that the woman named Grace is the one to whom nothing has been given.
וְשֵׁ֥םwə·šêm. . .H8034
√ shêm — an appellation, as amark or memorial of individualityConjunctive wawNounmasculine singular construct
הַשֵּׁנִ֖יתhaš·šê·nîṯand the otherH8145
√ shênîy — properly, double, iArticleNumberordinal feminine singular
פְּנִנָּ֑הpə·nin·nāhPeninnahH6444
√ Pᵉninnâh — Peninnah, an IsraelitessNounproperfeminine singular
Pᵉninnâh — Peninnah, an Israelitess Rendered “coral” or “pearl” (Ellicott, Cambridge, K&D); Pulpit specifies “the red pearl, translated coral in Job 28:18, but ruby in Proverbs 3:15.” Gill, who first calls the name “a cornered gem,” turns it: she “proved to be a rough diamond.”
לִפְנִנָּה֙lip̄·nin·nāhAnd PeninnahH6444
√ Pᵉninnâh — Peninnah, an IsraelitessPreposition-lNounproperfeminine singular
וַיְהִ֤יway·hîhadH1961
√ hâyâh — to exist, iConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
way·hî again (H1961) — the same verb that opened v. 1, now doing ordinary work: children came to be, to Peninnah.
יְלָדִ֔יםyə·lā·ḏîmchildrenH3206
√ yeled — something born, iNounmasculine plural
וּלְחַנָּ֖הū·lə·ḥan·nāhbut HannahH2584
√ Channâh — Channah, an IsraelitessConjunctive waw, Preposition-lNounproperfeminine singular
אֵ֥ין’ênhad noneH369
√ ʼayin — a non-entityAdverb
ʼayin — a non-entity The pivot of the verse and of the unit. Everything the narrator has assembled — town, lineage, wives, sons, daughters — is set against this one particle. Barnes reads the recurrence of barrenness in Sarah, Rebekah and Rachel as a pattern “marking the children so born as raised up for special purposes by divine Providence,” and finds here “the weakness and comparative barrenness of the Church of God” foreshadowed.
יְלָדִֽים׃yə·lā·ḏîm. . .H3206
√ yeled — something born, iNounmasculine plural
yeled (H3206), “something born.” The last word of the verse is the thing Hannah does not have.
3

Year after year Elkanah would go up from his city to worship and sacrifice to the LORD of Hosts at Shiloh, where Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests to the LORD.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

mî·yā·mîm yā·mî·māh ha·hū hā·’îš wə·‘ā·lāh mê·‘î·rōw lə·hiš·ta·ḥă·wōṯ wə·liz·bō·aḥ Yah·weh ṣə·ḇā·’ō·wṯ bə·ši·lōh wə·šām ‘ê·lî šə·nê ḇə·nê- ḥā·p̄ə·nî ū·p̄in·ḥās kō·hă·nîm Yah·weh

Word by word19 · parsed
מִיָּמִ֣ים׀mî·yā·mîmYear after yearH3117
√ yôwm — a day (as the warm hours), whether literal (from sunrise to sunset, or from one sunset to the next), or figurative (a space of time defined by an associated term), (often used adverb)Preposition-mNounmasculine plural
yôwm — a day; a space of time defined by an associated term The doubled noun (“from days to days-ward”) is the unit's clock. It recurs in v. 7 as shânâh bᵉshânâh, year in year, and each turn of it brings both Elkanah's kindness and Peninnah's cruelty round again.
יָמִ֔ימָהyā·mî·māh. . .H3117
√ yôwm — a day (as the warm hours), whether literal (from sunrise to sunset, or from one sunset to the next), or figurative (a space of time defined by an associated term), (often used adverb)Nounmasculine pluralthird person feminine singular
הַה֤וּאha·hū[Elkanah]H1931
√ hûwʼ — he (she or it)ArticlePronounthird person masculine singular
ha·hū, “that one” — the demonstrative pins the subject back to the man of v. 1 after the digression about the wives.
הָאִ֨ישׁhā·’îš. . .H376
√ ʼîysh — a man as an individual or a male personArticleNounmasculine singular
וְעָלָה֩wə·‘ā·lāhwould go upH5927
√ ʻâlâh — to ascend, intransitively (be high) or actively (mount)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConjunctive perfectthird person masculine singular
ʻâlâh — to ascend, to go up The conjunctive perfect makes the pilgrimage habitual. Poole and Benson both note that as a Levite Elkanah could not sacrifice in his own person but only by the priests; Gill measures the road at seven to twelve miles. The habit, not the single act, is what the narrator is reporting.
מֵֽעִירוֹ֙mê·‘î·rōwfrom his cityH5892
√ ʻîyr — a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the widest sense (even of a mere encampment or post)Preposition-mNounfeminine singular constructthird person masculine singular
לְהִֽשְׁתַּחֲוֺ֧תlə·hiš·ta·ḥă·wōṯto worshipH7812
√ shâchâh — to depress, iPreposition-lVerbHitpaelInfinitive construct
shâchâh — to depress; Hitpael, to bow oneself down The Verifier finds this lexeme in 166 verses, so the word itself is common; what is not common is its placement here, one clause before the names of two priests whose corruption 1 Samuel 2 will spell out. Gill notes the older reading that puts worship before sacrifice deliberately, prayer being “preferable to that, and more acceptable to God.”
וְלִזְבֹּ֛חַwə·liz·bō·aḥand sacrificeH2076
√ zâbach — to slaughter an animal (usually in sacrifice)Conjunctive waw, Preposition-lVerbQalInfinitive construct
לַיהוָ֥הYah·wehto the LORDH3068
√ Yᵉhôvâh — Jehovah, Jewish national name of GodPreposition-lNounpropermasculine singular
צְבָא֖וֹתṣə·ḇā·’ō·wṯof HostsH6635
√ tsâbâʼ — a mass of persons (or figuratively, things), especially regNouncommon plural
tsâbâʼ — a mass of persons or things, an army The one contested term in the verse. Barnes takes “hosts” of the angelic armies and reads the title as a polemic against star-worship; Pulpit says the word “does not mean armies, inasmuch as it refers to numbers, and not to order and arrangement,” and is “usually employed of the heavenly bodies”; K&D refuses to narrow it at all. ⚙ Note what the title costs the story nothing to say: the God of all armies is introduced, for the first time in the canon, in the household accounts of a childless woman.
בְּשִׁלֹ֑הbə·ši·lōhat ShilohH7887
√ Shîylôh — Shiloh, a place in PalestinePreposition-bNounproperfeminine singular
Shîylôh — Shiloh, a place in Palestine Ellicott and Cambridge both give the sense of the name: “rest.” Cambridge adds Jeremiah's later verdict on it (Jeremiah 7:12) and observes that after the Ark was lost “Samuel sacrificed at Mizpeh, at Ramah, at Gilgal, never, so far as we read, at Shiloh.” The place of rest in v. 3 is already, in the canon's own memory, a ruin.
וְשָׁ֞םwə·šāmwhereH8033
√ shâm — there (transferring to time) thenConjunctive wawAdverb
עֵלִ֗י‘ê·lîEli’sH5941
√ ʻÊlîy — Eli, an Israelite highpriestNounpropermasculine singular
שְׁנֵ֣יšə·nêtwoH8147
√ shᵉnayim — twoNumbermasculine dual construct
בְנֵֽי־ḇə·nê-sonsH1121
√ bên — a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etcNounmasculine plural construct
חָפְנִי֙ḥā·p̄ə·nîHophniH2652
√ Chophnîy — Chophni, an IsraeliteNounpropermasculine singular
וּפִ֣נְחָ֔סū·p̄in·ḥāsand PhinehasH6372
√ Pîynᵉchâç — Pinechas, the name of three IsraelitesConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular
כֹּהֲנִ֖יםkō·hă·nîmwere priestsH3548
√ kôhên — literally one officiating, a priestNounmasculine plural
kôhên — literally one officiating, a priest The verse's last three words name two men and their office and say nothing else. JFB draws the moral that Elkanah went up anyway; Poole says the clause is added “to show that this good man did not run into that vulgar error, of neglecting his duty… for the wickedness of the priests.”
לַיהוָֽה׃Yah·wehto the LORDH3068
√ Yᵉhôvâh — Jehovah, Jewish national name of GodPreposition-lNounpropermasculine singular
4

And whenever the day came for Elkanah to present his sacrifice, he would give portions to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

hay·yō·wm way·hî ’el·qā·nāh way·yiz·baḥ wə·nā·ṯan mā·nō·wṯ ’iš·tōw lip̄·nin·nāh ū·lə·ḵāl- bā·ne·hā ū·ḇə·nō·w·ṯe·hā

Word by word11 · parsed
הַיּ֔וֹםhay·yō·wmAnd whenever the dayH3117
√ yôwm — a day (as the warm hours), whether literal (from sunrise to sunset, or from one sunset to the next), or figurative (a space of time defined by an associated term), (often used adverb)ArticleNounmasculine singular
וַיְהִ֣יway·hîcameH1961
√ hâyâh — to exist, iConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
way·hî (H1961) a third time in four verses — the narrator's hinge, here introducing the recurring festival day.
אֶלְקָנָ֑ה’el·qā·nāhfor ElkanahH511
√ ʼElqânâh — Elkanah, the name of several IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular
וַיִּזְבַּ֖חway·yiz·baḥto present his sacrificeH2076
√ zâbach — to slaughter an animal (usually in sacrifice)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
zâbach — to slaughter an animal, usually in sacrifice The same root as the infinitive in v. 3, now a finite consecutive imperfect. Cambridge: “His sacrifice was a thank-offering, for it was only of the thank-offerings that the worshippers partook.” Gill records the rabbinic dispute over which feast: Pentecost (R. Joshua Ben Levi) or Tabernacles (Abarbanel, whom Gill prefers).
וְנָתַ֞ןwə·nā·ṯanhe would giveH5414
√ nâthan — to give, used with greatest latitude of application (put, make, etcConjunctive wawVerbQalConjunctive perfectthird person masculine singular
nâthan — to give, with the greatest latitude of application The verb that governs vv. 4 and 5 and the whole domestic economy of the chapter. ⚙ Elkanah gives what he can weigh out; the thing Hannah needs cannot be cut from a sacrifice, and v. 5 will name the only one who can shut or open it.
מָנֽוֹת׃mā·nō·wṯportionsH4490
√ mânâh — properly, something weighed out, iNounfeminine plural
mânâh — something weighed out, a portion A measured share of the peace offering. JFB notes the Eastern custom of “a larger choice, according to the Eastern fashion of showing regard to beloved or distinguished guests,” comparing Genesis 43:34 and 1 Samuel 9:24.
אִשְׁתּ֗וֹ’iš·tōwto his wifeH802
√ ʼishshâh — a womanNounfeminine singular constructthird person masculine singular
לִפְנִנָּ֣הlip̄·nin·nāhPeninnahH6444
√ Pᵉninnâh — Peninnah, an IsraelitessPreposition-lNounproperfeminine singular
וּֽלְכָל־ū·lə·ḵāl-and to allH3605
√ kôl — properly, the wholeConjunctive waw, Preposition-lNounmasculine singular construct
kôl (H3605), “all” — applied to Peninnah's children and to no one else in the verse.
בָּנֶ֛יהָbā·ne·hāher sonsH1121
√ bên — a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etcNounmasculine plural constructthird person feminine singular
bâneyhā (H1121) with the feminine suffix: her sons. Across vv. 4-8 the word bên keeps returning — her sons, ten sons — each time from a mouth that is not Hannah's.
וּבְנוֹתֶ֖יהָū·ḇə·nō·w·ṯe·hāand daughtersH1323
√ bath — a daughter (used in the same wide sense as other terms of relationship, literally and figuratively)Conjunctive wawNounfeminine plural constructthird person feminine singular
bath (H1323), daughters. The only mention of daughters in the unit; the narrative's ache is specifically about sons, and the list here is inclusive precisely to show how full the other table is.
5

But to Hannah he would give a double portion, for he loved her even though the LORD had closed her womb.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

ū·lə·ḥan·nāh yit·tên ’a·ḥaṯ ’ap·pā·yim mā·nāh kî ’eṯ- ’ā·hêḇ ḥan·nāh Yah·weh sā·ḡar raḥ·māh

Word by word12 · parsed
וּלְחַנָּ֕הū·lə·ḥan·nāhBut to HannahH2584
√ Channâh — Channah, an IsraelitessConjunctive waw, Preposition-lNounproperfeminine singular
יִתֵּ֛ןyit·tênhe would giveH5414
√ nâthan — to give, used with greatest latitude of application (put, make, etcVerbQalImperfectthird person masculine singular
nâthan — to give (Qal imperfect) The imperfect continues the habitual force of v. 4: year on year, the same gift, the same table.
אַחַ֖ת’a·ḥaṯaH259
√ ʼechâd — properly, united, iNumberfeminine singular construct
אַפָּ֑יִם’ap·pā·yimdoubleH639
√ ʼaph — properly, the nose or nostrilNounmd
ʼaph — properly, the nose or nostril (dual) The disputed word. Three readings are live in the sources: a double portion (K&D, Ellicott, Barnes, Benson, Syriac), a single choice portion given with a kind countenance (Gill, citing Jerome; Geneva's margin, “a portion with a hearty cheer”), and a portion given in anger or sadness (Vulgate, Luther, Abarbanel). Cambridge adds that the Septuagint's different reading yields “a single portion, because she had no child.” ⚙ Four traditions, one word of four consonants, and the household's whole emotional temperature turning on it.
מָנָ֥הmā·nāhportionH4490
√ mânâh — properly, something weighed out, iNounfeminine singular
כִּ֤יkîforH3588
√ kîy — (by implication) very widely used as a relative conjunction or adverb (as below)Conjunction
kî (H3588) — the conjunction that grounds the gift in the love, whichever way the portion is construed.
אֶת־’eṯ-H853
√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker
אָהֵ֔ב’ā·hêḇhe lovedH157
√ ʼâhab — to have affection for (sexually or otherwise)VerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular
ʼâhab — to have affection for Qal perfect, stative. Set beside çâgar in the same verse, it produces the sentence's real shape: a man's love and God's refusal side by side, neither cancelling the other. Ellicott, with von Gerlach, hears the gift saying “Thou art as dear to me as if thou hadst borne me a child” — which is precisely the thing it cannot be.
חַנָּה֙ḥan·nāhherH2584
√ Channâh — Channah, an IsraelitessNounproperfeminine singular
וַֽיהוָ֖הYah·weheven though the LORDH3068
√ Yᵉhôvâh — Jehovah, Jewish national name of GodConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular
סָגַ֥רsā·ḡarhad closedH5462
√ çâgar — to shut upVerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular
çâgar — to shut up The theological centre of gravity. The narrator has been meticulous about human agency — Elkanah goes up, sacrifices, gives, loves — and then puts the one closed door in the hands of the LORD of Hosts named in v. 3. ⚙ The God who commands all armies is here doing one thing, and it is a shutting.
רַחְמָֽהּ׃raḥ·māhher wombH7358
√ rechem — the wombNounmasculine singular constructthird person feminine singular
rechem — the womb A masculine singular noun with a feminine suffix: her womb. It is the last word of the verse, and it will be the last word of v. 6 too. Cambridge steadies the reader with the canonical company: Sarah, Rachel and Manoah's wife “all had to bear the reproach of childlessness for a time.”
6

Because the LORD had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival would provoke her viciously to taunt her.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

kî- Yah·weh sā·ḡar bə·‘aḏ raḥ·māh ṣā·rā·ṯāh gam- ba·‘ă·ḇūr har·rə·‘i·māh ka·‘as wə·ḵi·‘ă·sat·tāh

Word by word11 · parsed
כִּֽי־kî-BecauseH3588
√ kîy — (by implication) very widely used as a relative conjunction or adverb (as below)Conjunction
kî (H3588) — “because.” The taunting is grounded in the divine shutting; Peninnah's cruelty has God's providence for its raw material.
יְהוָ֖הYah·wehthe LORDH3068
√ Yᵉhôvâh — Jehovah, Jewish national name of GodNounpropermasculine singular
סָגַ֥רsā·ḡarhad closedH5462
√ çâgar — to shut upVerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular
çâgar — to shut up The second occurrence in two verses, and again with YHWH as subject. ⚙ Two verses, one divine verb, repeated: the narrator will not let the reader settle the barrenness on biology or on Peninnah.
בְּעַ֥דbə·‘aḏvvvH1157
√ bᵉʻad — in up to or over againstPreposition
bᵉʻad — in, up to, over against The preposition that v. 5 lacked. Small word, real weight: it makes the shutting a barrier rather than a mere condition.
רַחְמָֽהּ׃raḥ·māh[Hannah’s] wombH7358
√ rechem — the wombNounmasculine singular constructthird person feminine singular
צָֽרָתָהּ֙ṣā·rā·ṯāhher rivalH6869
√ tsârâh — tightness (iNounfeminine singular constructthird person feminine singular
tsârâh — tightness, distress, adversary The rival wife is named by the word for constriction. ⚙ Set against rechem, the womb, at the end of the same verse, the verse holds two enclosures: one woman narrowed by God, and one narrowing her further. Ellicott lays the fault at the household's structure rather than at Peninnah's temper alone.
גַּם־gam-. . .H1571
√ gam — properly, assemblageConjunction
בַּעֲב֖וּרba·‘ă·ḇūrH5668
√ ʻâbûwr — properly, crossed, iPreposition-bNounmasculine singular
הַרְּעִמָ֑הּhar·rə·‘i·māhwould provoke herH7481
√ râʻam — to tumble, iVerbHifilInfinitive constructthird person feminine singular
râʻam — to tumble, to thunder A rare and violent root for a domestic scene. K&D insists it is agitation rather than anger; Gill hears thunder and rain. Either way the Hifil is causative: Peninnah's purpose clause is to make Hannah roar inwardly.
כַּ֔עַסka·‘asviciouslyH3708
√ kaʻaç — vexationNounmasculine singular
kaʻaç — vexation The noun beside its own verb. Poole reads the intent as theological, not merely social: “To make her fret, against her husband, or against God, or within herself.”
וְכִֽעֲסַ֤תָּהwə·ḵi·‘ă·sat·tāhto taunt herH3707
√ kaʻaç — to troubleConjunctive wawVerbPielConjunctive perfectthird person feminine singularthird person feminine singular
kaʻaç — to trouble (Piel) The intensive stem, feminine subject, feminine object: woman upon woman, every year, at the sanctuary.
7

And this went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the LORD, her rival taunted her until she wept and would not eat.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

wə·ḵên ya·‘ă·śeh šā·nāh ḇə·šā·nāh mid·dê ‘ă·lō·ṯāh bə·ḇêṯ Yah·weh kên taḵ·‘i·sen·nāh wat·tiḇ·keh wə·lō ṯō·ḵal

Word by word13 · parsed
וְכֵ֨ןwə·ḵênAnd this went onH3651
√ kên — properly, set uprightConjunctive wawAdverb
kên — properly, set upright; thus, so The first of the two correlated adverbs. Their symmetry is the verse's architecture, and it survives none of the standard English renderings.
יַעֲשֶׂ֜הya·‘ă·śeh. . .H6213
√ ʻâsâh — to do or make, in the broadest sense and widest applicationVerbQalImperfectthird person masculine singular
שָׁנָ֣הšā·nāhyearH8141
√ shâneh — a year (as a revolution of time)Nounfeminine singular
shâneh — a year, as a revolution of time shânâh bᵉshânâh, “year in year,” answering the “from days to days” of v. 3. The unit is measured out in returns.
בְשָׁנָ֗הḇə·šā·nāhafter yearH8141
√ shâneh — a year (as a revolution of time)Preposition-bNounfeminine singular
מִדֵּ֤יmid·dêWheneverH1767
√ day — enough (as noun or adverb), used chiefly with preposition in phrasesPreposition-mNounmasculine singular construct
עֲלֹתָהּ֙‘ă·lō·ṯāh[Hannah] went upH5927
√ ʻâlâh — to ascend, intransitively (be high) or actively (mount)VerbQalInfinitive constructthird person feminine singular
ʻâlâh — to ascend (infinitive construct with feminine suffix) Hannah's going up, in the same verb used of Elkanah's pilgrimage in v. 3. ⚙ She keeps the feast that costs her the most; the text never once shows her refusing to go.
בְּבֵ֣יתbə·ḇêṯto the houseH1004
√ bayith — a house (in the greatest variation of applications, especially family, etcPreposition-bNounmasculine singular construct
bayith — a house, in the greatest variation of applications, especially family The same noun covers a dwelling and a household. The word that names God's house in this verse is the word for the family that is tearing itself apart inside it.
יְהוָ֔הYah·wehof the LORDH3068
√ Yᵉhôvâh — Jehovah, Jewish national name of GodNounpropermasculine singular
כֵּ֖ןkênH3651
√ kên — properly, set uprightAdverb
תַּכְעִסֶ֑נָּהtaḵ·‘i·sen·nāh[her rival] taunted herH3707
√ kaʻaç — to troubleVerbHifilImperfectthird person feminine singularthird person feminine singular
kaʻaç — to trouble (Hifil imperfect) Peninnah's verb again, now in the causative with a feminine subject and object, and now unmistakably iterative.
וַתִּבְכֶּ֖הwat·tiḇ·kehuntil she weptH1058
√ bâkâh — to weepConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person feminine singular
bâkâh — to weep Hannah's first act in the book. She has not yet spoken a word; the narrator gives her tears three verses before he gives her a voice. Gill: “her grief took away her stomach and appetite.”
וְלֹ֥אwə·lōand would notH3808
√ lôʼ — not (the simple or absConjunctive wawAdverbNegative particle
תֹאכַֽל׃ṯō·ḵaleatH398
√ ʼâkal — to eat (literally or figuratively)VerbQalImperfectthird person feminine singular
ʼâkal — to eat Refusal of the sacrificial meal itself. Poole reads it as scruple as well as sorrow: she was “overwhelmed with grief, and therefore unfit to eat of that sacred food, according to Deuteronomy 12:7.” Cambridge: she “refused to take any part in the rejoicings of the sacrificial feast.”
8

“Hannah, why are you crying?” her husband Elkanah asked. “Why won’t you eat? Why is your heart so grieved? Am I not better to you than ten sons?”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

ḥan·nāh lā·meh ṯiḇ·kî ’î·šāh ’el·qā·nāh way·yō·mer lāh wə·lā·meh lō ṯō·ḵə·lî wə·lā·meh lə·ḇā·ḇêḵ yê·ra‘ ’ā·nō·ḵî hă·lō·w ṭō·wḇ lāḵ mê·‘ă·śā·rāh bā·nîm

Word by word19 · parsed
חַנָּה֙ḥan·nāhHannahH2584
√ Channâh — Channah, an IsraelitessNounproperfeminine singular
לָ֣מֶהlā·mehwhyH4100
√ mâh — properly, interrogative what? (including how? why? when?)Interrogative
lâmeh (H4100), “why” — asked three times in one verse, and never once answered in this unit. Hannah's reply does not come until v. 15, outside these eight verses.
תִבְכִּ֗יṯiḇ·kîare you cryingH1058
√ bâkâh — to weepVerbQalImperfectsecond person feminine singular
אִישָׁ֗הּ’î·šāhher husbandH376
√ ʼîysh — a man as an individual or a male personNounmasculine singular constructthird person feminine singular
ʼîysh — a man as an individual The chapter's first word for Elkanah (v. 1) is now suffixed to Hannah: her man. The narrator gives him back to her by grammar at exactly the point where he is failing to comfort her.
אֶלְקָנָ֣ה’el·qā·nāhElkanahH511
√ ʼElqânâh — Elkanah, the name of several IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular
וַיֹּ֨אמֶרway·yō·meraskedH559
√ ʼâmar — to say (used with great latitude)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
לָ֜הּlāh
Prepositionthird person feminine singular
וְלָ֙מֶה֙wə·lā·mehWhyH4100
√ mâh — properly, interrogative what? (including how? why? when?)Conjunctive wawInterrogative
לֹ֣אlōwon’t youH3808
√ lôʼ — not (the simple or absAdverbNegative particle
תֹֽאכְלִ֔יṯō·ḵə·lîeatH398
√ ʼâkal — to eat (literally or figuratively)VerbQalImperfectsecond person feminine singular
וְלָ֖מֶהwə·lā·mehWhyH4100
√ mâh — properly, interrogative what? (including how? why? when?)Conjunctive wawInterrogative
לְבָבֵ֑ךְlə·ḇā·ḇêḵis your heartH3824
√ lêbâb — the heart (as the most interior organ)Nounmasculine singular constructsecond person feminine singular
lêbâb — the heart, as the most interior organ The seat of thought and will, not sentiment alone. ⚙ Elkanah's three questions descend: tears, food, heart — and at the third he stops asking and starts arguing. Geneva glosses his intent generously: “Let this comfort you, that I love you no less than if you had many children.”
יֵרַ֣עyê·ra‘so grievedH3415
√ yâraʻ — properly, to be broken up (with any violent action) iVerbQalImperfectthird person masculine singular
yâraʻ — properly, to be broken up with any violent action A rare verb (four verses in the canon) doing the heaviest work in the sentence. It is not “sad”; it is shattered. That the subject is lêbâb, the inmost organ, makes the question the most searching thing said aloud in the unit — and it is asked by the one person who cannot mend it.
אָֽנֹכִי֙’ā·nō·ḵîAm IH595
√ ʼânôkîy — IPronounfirst person common singular
ʼânôkîy — I Emphatic, fronted against the ten sons. Benson hears a model husband here; Pulpit does not: the husband “really is not ‘better than ten sons,’ for the joy of motherhood is quite distinct from that of conjugal affection.”
הֲל֤וֹאhă·lō·wnotH3808
√ lôʼ — not (the simple or absAdverbNegative particle
ט֣וֹבṭō·wḇbetterH2896
√ ṭôwb — good (as an adjective) in the widest senseAdjectivemasculine singular
ṭôwb — good, in the widest sense K&D renders the comparative “dearer.” Cambridge points to Ruth 4:15, where a daughter-in-law is “better to thee than seven sons” — the same idiom of weighing a person against a count of children.
לָ֔ךְlāḵto you
Prepositionsecond person feminine singular
מֵעֲשָׂרָ֖הmê·‘ă·śā·rāhthan tenH6235
√ ʻeser — ten (as an accumulation to the extent of the digits)Preposition-mNumbermasculine singular
בָּנִֽים׃bā·nîmsonsH1121
√ bên — a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etcNounmasculine plural
bên — a son, as a builder of the family name The unit's last word, and the thing Hannah does not have. Strong's root sense — the son as builder of the family name — is why the lack is not sentimental but structural: without him the house has no builder.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. A man from the two heights, and a household with a hole in it — 1 Samuel 1:1-2

The book opens with a bare וַיְהִי֩ and a full address: a man, a town of two heights, a hill country, five generations. Cambridge hears in that conjunction a seam — “the book of Samuel is a continuation of the history contained in the book of Judges” — while Ellicott flatly denies it and calls the phrase “a common historical introductory formula.” Neither can prove the other wrong from the Hebrew, and the FSSB records the disagreement rather than settling it. On the town they converge: Ramathaim is a dual, “the two heights,” with Zophim, watchers. Ellicott prefers hills that watch each other; Benson and Poole want watch-towers; Barnes, Pulpit and K&D trace the name to Zuph, Elkanah's remote ancestor, whose rare name (the Verifier finds צוּף, H6689, in four verses only) also labels “the land of Zuph” at 1 Samuel 9:5. Pulpit draws the conclusion the genealogy is for: Zuph was “a person of sufficient power and energy to give his name to the whole district,” so Elkanah “would be a man of wealth and influence.” Then the same Pulpit note removes the prop the reader is reaching for: “Though Samuel belonged to the tribe of Levi, yet no special mention is made of the fact, because he owed his importance and rank as a judge not to his Levitical origin, but to the gift of prophecy.” ⚙ The narrator has given us the whole apparatus of a man's standing, and has been careful that none of it will matter. Verse 2 empties it in one particle: אֵ֥ין (ʼayin, H369), which Strong's glosses “a non-entity.” Gill, punning on the gem-name, says Peninnah “proved to be a rough diamond”; Ellicott, of the polygamy itself, says the Law “simply seek[s] to restrict and limit it” and that in the Mosaic code the practice “is never approved.”

ii. From days to days: the LORD of Hosts is named, and the priests are already rotten — 1 Samuel 1:3-4

Verse 3 is built on repetition: מִיָּמִ֣ים יָמִ֔ימָה, “from days to days-ward,” with a conjunctive perfect (wə·‘ā·lāh) that Cambridge identifies as the tense of habit for this whole paragraph — “he used to give: her adversary used to provoke her.” Into that annual routine the canon drops a title it has never used before. Barnes, Ellicott, Benson, Gill and Pulpit all note the same fact independently: YHWH of Hosts occurs here for the first time in the Old Testament, and some 260 times thereafter. They then disagree about what the hosts are. Barnes takes them of the angels and reads the title as a protest against star-worship; Pulpit insists the word “does not mean armies, inasmuch as it refers to numbers, and not to order and arrangement”; K&D declines to narrow it at all: “It is simply applied to Jehovah as the God of the universe, who governs all the powers of heaven, both visible and invisible, as He rules in heaven and on earth.” Ellicott reads it politically, as “the solemn protest of Samuel and his school against any eclipsing of the mighty but invisible sovereignty of the Eternal by the passing splendours… of an earthly monarchy.” Immediately the verse names Hophni and Phinehas, and JFB says the quiet thing plainly: Elkanah's regularity “is the more worthy of notice because the character of the two priests who administered them was notoriously bad.” ⚙ The first naming of the LORD of armies in Scripture is placed one clause away from the two priests whose names 1 Samuel 4 will attach to a national catastrophe. Verse 4 then drops from cosmos to carving-board: מָנֽוֹת (mânâh, H4490), portions “weighed out,” which Poole locates precisely — “out of the sacrifice of his peace-offerings… eaten by him and his friends or guests before the Lord” — and Benson reads sacramentally: “they ate all before the Lord, and hereby were supposed to have communion with him.”

iii. One portion of two faces, and the only verb God is given — 1 Samuel 1:5-6

Everything tender in this unit concentrates in a phrase nobody can translate with confidence: אַחַ֖ת אַפָּ֑יִם מָנָ֥ה, “one portion of two nostrils / faces.” K&D, with Ellicott and von Gerlach, reads a double portion meaning “thou art as dear to me as if thou hadst born me a child”; Pulpit rejects the grammar and prefers the Septuagint's different consonants, which would make it a single portion given because she had no child; the Vulgate, Luther and Abarbanel take the dual as anger, which K&D dismantles with a single sentence — “he gave her a portion unwillingly, because he loved her!”; Geneva's margin offers a fourth, “a portion with a hearty cheer.” Four traditions, one four-letter word. ⚙ We under-claim deliberately: the FSSB does not adjudicate, and the reader should know that the warmest gesture in the chapter rests on a disputed text. What is not disputed is the clause that follows it, twice: סָגַ֥ר (çâgar, H5462, “to shut up”), with YHWH as its subject in v. 5 and again in v. 6, the second time with בְּעַ֥ד (bᵉʻad) added — shut behind. Gill says why: “not because she was naturally barren, but because the Lord had shut up her womb… to put her upon praying for one.” Against that stands the rival, whom the Hebrew names צָֽרָתָהּ (tsârâh, H6869) — Strong's root sense “tightness,” so that the rival wife is literally her distress. Cambridge supplies the law behind the word (Leviticus 18:18, “to vex her”), and K&D holds the violent verb râʻam down to size: “to excite, put into (inward) commotion, not exactly to make angry.” Ellicott lays the blame on the arrangement rather than the woman: “The one sin of polygamy poisons the whole home life of the family.”

iv. Thus and thus, year upon year: tears at the sanctuary, and a husband's arithmetic — 1 Samuel 1:7-8

Verse 7 is two adverbs holding each other up. K&D: “The two כּן correspond to one another. Just as Elkanah showed his love to Hannah at every sacrificial festival, so did Peninnah repeat her provocation.” The kindness and the cruelty run on the same calendar and at the same volume. Who performs the first verb is genuinely unsettled: Barnes argues “Though the verb is masculine, Peninnah must be the subject”; Pulpit blames the Masoretic pointing and cites the Septuagint, Syriac and Vulgate for “so she did year by year,” while noting that the vowels “are human, and form no part of Holy Scripture”; Gill and K&D keep Elkanah. Poole names the aggravation that all of them feel: the quarrel happens “when she came to worship God, and to offer sacrifices.” Then Hannah weeps and will not eat, and her husband asks three questions and makes one argument. The third question is the deepest and uses the unit's rarest word: יֵרַ֣ע (yâraʻ, H3415), which Strong's defines as “to be broken up (with any violent action)” — not sadness but fracture — with לְבָבֵ֑ךְ, the heart “as the most interior organ,” as its subject. His answer to it is אָֽנֹכִי֙, the emphatic I myself, set against ten sons, which Ellicott and K&D agree is “a round number to express many.” Geneva glosses him kindly: “Let this comfort you, that I love you no less than if you had many children.” Benson calls him “an example of a most excellent husband.” Pulpit will not have it: “the joy of motherhood is quite distinct from that of conjugal affection, and especially to a Hebrew woman, who had special hopes from which she was cut off by barrenness.” ⚙ We think Pulpit has the better of it, and that the text agrees with him by silence: Elkanah asks three times why, and in these eight verses Hannah never answers.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ This is the tool's own fallible reading, offered to be tested against the Word and against the named voices above. Count the verbs. In eight verses Elkanah goes up, sacrifices, gives, loves and speaks; Peninnah provokes, thunders and vexes; Hannah goes up, weeps and refuses to eat. The LORD of Hosts — the title the canon uses here for the very first time, ruler of every army visible and invisible — is the subject of exactly one verb in the entire unit, and he does it twice: סָגַ֥ר, he shut (1 Samuel 1:5), and again he shut behind (1 Samuel 1:6). That is the whole of God's recorded activity in the opening of the book of the kingdom. It is not an absence; it is a closure, deliberate and named. And the narrator has arranged the surrounding facts so that no other cause is available: the man is wealthy (Pulpit), devout (JFB), loving (Poole, Benson), and Levite (Ellicott, JFB, Gill); the priests are corrupt but the pilgrim still goes; the rival is cruel but the rival did not do this. Everything a household could supply has been supplied, and the house has no builder — bên, H1121, the son “as a builder of the family name,” is the unit's last word and Hannah's missing one. ⚙ Our reading is this: 1 Samuel begins by shutting a door so that when Israel later demands a king, the reader will already have been taught where openings come from. The line that follows is our sentence, not Scripture.

The LORD of Hosts is given one verb in these eight verses, and it is to shut.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

Zuph, and the genealogy that stops where the land begins verbal / quotation — confirmed

The last name in Elkanah's ladder is צוּף (Tsûwph, H6689), and the Verifier finds that lexeme in only four verses of the canon — two of them the Chronicler's Kohathite registers, the third the passage where Saul's search for lost donkeys brings him into “the land of Zuph” and to Samuel's door. Cambridge, Barnes, Pulpit and K&D all read the genealogy as stopping deliberately at the first settler, who “gave his name to ‘the land of Zuph’” (Cambridge). Gill and Pulpit both note that 1 Chronicles 6 gives the same line with variant spellings — Elihu/Eliab/Eliel, Tohu/Nahath/Toah — which Pulpit attributes to “family documents, in which… there was much diversity of spelling.” ⚙ The link is onomastic, not a quotation: the same rare name standing in a genealogy and in a place-name.

1 Chronicles 6:26 · 1 Chronicles 6:35 · 1 Samuel 9:5

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H6689 Tsûwph (RARE — in 4 vv) and H511 ʼElqânâh (in 20 vv) at 1 Chronicles 6:26 and 6:35; H6689 alone at 1 Samuel 9:5. The verbal identity is of proper names in a shared genealogy, not of a cited text — no quotation is claimed

“Priests to the LORD” — the two names the narrator plants here and detonates in chapter 4 verbal / quotation — confirmed

1 Samuel 1:3 ends by posting Hophni and Phinehas at Shiloh in a clause with no verb. חָפְנִי (Chophnîy, H2652) is rare — the Verifier finds it in five verses, and Cambridge confirms that “the name Hophni occurs nowhere else in the O. T.” Every one of those verses belongs to this arc: the pair carry the ark into battle (4:4) and die on the same day (4:11). Cambridge adds the bitterness of the second name: Phinehas here “sull[ies] the honour of one of the most illustrious names in Israel,” the zealot of Psalm 106:30-31. Poole says the clause exists to show that Elkanah “did not run into that vulgar error, of neglecting his duty of offering to God for the wickedness of the priests”; JFB says the same. ⚙ The narrator's economy is the point: two names, no verb, and the reader who reaches chapter 4 learns what the silence in chapter 1 was holding.

1 Samuel 4:4 · 1 Samuel 4:11

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H2652 Chophnîy (RARE — in 5 vv) plus H5941 ʻÊlîy (in 30 vv) and H7887 Shîylôh (in 30 vv) at 1 Samuel 4:4; H2652 with H6372 Pîynᵉchâç (in 24 vv) at 1 Samuel 4:11. Same-book narrative recurrence of a rare name, not a citation

The shut womb and the song: what the closure is for structural / thematic — confirmed

The unit's two divine verbs are both çâgar (H5462). The Verifier's candidate list is dominated by חַנָּה (Channâh, H2584, in 11 verses), and that lexeme traces the whole reversal: she goes up and is remembered (1:19), conceives and bears (1:20), and then sings (2:1) — after which the same name is met with further children (2:21). Barnes reads the pattern rather than the single case: the barrenness of “Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel,” “coupled with the prophetic language of Hannah's song in 1 Samuel 2, justifies us in seeking a mystical sense.” ⚙ We claim only a motif here, traced by a shared name. No quotation is involved and none is asserted.

1 Samuel 1:19 · 1 Samuel 1:20 · 1 Samuel 2:1 · 1 Samuel 2:21

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H2584 Channâh (in 11 vv) at 1 Samuel 1:19, 1:20, 2:1 and 2:21 (1:19 also shares H511 ʼElqânâh, in 20 vv, and H7812 shâchâh, in 166 vv). The shared lexeme is a proper name; the link asserted is the narrative motif of closure and reversal, not a verbal quotation

The barren mothers: a pattern the commentators name before we do structural / thematic — confirmed

Cambridge attaches Hannah to a canonical company — “Sarah (Genesis 16:1), Rachel (Genesis 30:1), Manoah's wife (Judges 13:2), all had to bear the reproach of childlessness for a time, and all eventually bore illustrious sons” — and Barnes builds his typology on the same list. ⚙ We record this thread as commentator-attested rather than Verifier-computed: these references do not appear in the Verifier's candidate output for this unit, and we have not run a lexeme comparison on them. The basis is therefore the named judgement of Cambridge and Barnes plus an evident narrative pattern, and the tier is set accordingly.

Genesis 16:1 · Genesis 30:1 · Judges 13:2

basis: Not a Verifier-computed pair: no shared-lexeme calculation was run for these references. Basis is the explicit citation of all three by Cambridge at 1 Samuel 1:5 and by Barnes at 1 Samuel 1:2, plus the shared narrative pattern of a barren woman bearing a deliverer. No verbal or quotation claim

Hannah's name, and a woman in the temple courts called by it structural / thematic — confirmed

Ellicott, Barnes, Cambridge and Pulpit all record, independently, that חַנָּה (“grace,” H2584) is the Anna of Luke 2:36, the prophetess in the temple; Ellicott, looking forward, calls Hannah “mother of the Restorer of the people,” and Barnes finds in her song the ground for “seeking a mystical sense.” ⚙ The correspondence between Hannah's song and the Magnificat — a low woman, a reversal, a God who scatters the proud and fills the hungry — is a structural reading, and we mark its limit honestly: a Greek text and a Hebrew text cannot share a Strong's number, so no verbal tier is available here and none is claimed. What can be said is that the shapes rhyme, and that Luke sets his song in the same temple where Hannah's name reappears.

Luke 1:46-55 · Luke 2:36

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek ↔ Hebrew): shared Strong's numbers are impossible by definition, so a verbal tier is excluded on principle. Basis is (a) the name-identity Channâh/Anna, recorded by Ellicott, Barnes, Cambridge and Pulpit at 1 Samuel 1:2, and (b) a shared song-of-reversal structure. No quotation claimed

Ramathaim and Arimathea — an identification the sources themselves contest flagged — verify source

Gill reports Jerome verbatim: “Armatha Sophim, the city of Helcanah and Samuel… from whence was Joseph, who in the Gospels is said to be of Arimathaea” — and then immediately reports Reland's objection “that it cannot be the same,” since Jerome's site near Lydda “was all a champaign country; whereas this was in the mountains of Ephraim.” Pulpit asserts the identification outright (“the Arimathsea of the Gospels”); Cambridge hedges to “possibly,” with the Septuagint's Armathaim as “the link of connexion between the names”; K&D, arguing for er-Râm in Benjamin, rules Ramleh near Joppa out altogether. ⚙ Flagged, not asserted: the provenance is disputed inside our own source set, and Cambridge calls the site of Ramah itself “the most disputed problem of sacred topography.”

Matthew 27:57

basis: Contested provenance within the brief's own sources: Gill cites Jerome for the identification and Reland against it; Pulpit asserts it, Cambridge only allows it as possible via the LXX form Armathaim, K&D locates Ramah elsewhere. Cross-Testament in any case, so no shared-lexeme basis exists. Verify before relying on it

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The shut womb and the barren woman who sings ancient/widely-held

Barnes states the reading and its warrant in one sentence: the repeated barrenness of the mothers, “coupled with the prophetic language of Hannah's song in 1 Samuel 2, justifies us in seeking a mystical sense,” and he names what he finds — “the weakness and comparative barrenness of the Church of God, to be followed at the set time by her glorious triumph and immense increase.” ⚙ We extend Barnes one step, and label the step: Paul makes exactly this move canonically when he takes Isaiah's word to the barren woman — “Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear” — and applies it to the people of promise (Galatians 4:27, citing Isaiah 54:1). That is a real, explicit New Testament citation of an Old Testament text about barrenness turned to song; it is not a citation of 1 Samuel. So the pattern is apostolic and the application to Hannah is the commentators' and ours. The LORD of Hosts shuts the womb in 1:5-6 precisely so that what comes out of it will be unmistakably his gift and not the house's achievement — and Hannah's own song will say so before Mary's does.

1 Samuel 2:1 · Isaiah 54:1 · Galatians 4:27

The LORD of Hosts, first named here, and the Captain of the host ancient/widely-held

Five of our voices agree that 1 Samuel 1:3 is the canon's first use of YHWH Tsebaoth, and that the New Testament uses the title once only (James 5:4 — Barnes, Ellicott, Gill). Ellicott sets its purpose against the coming monarchy: “the solemn protest of Samuel and his school against any eclipsing of the mighty but invisible sovereignty of the Eternal by the passing splendours and the outward pomp of an earthly monarchy set up over the people.” Ellicott also brings forward, in the same note, “the glorious Angel who allowed Joshua to worship him under the towers of Jericho,” who “speaks of himself as ‘captain or prince of the host of the Lord’” (Joshua 5:14). ⚙ The identification of that captain with the pre-incarnate Son is the long-standing reading of the church, though Ellicott himself says only “the glorious Angel” and does not name Christ; we mark the seam rather than hide it. The redemptive-historical point stands on the text either way: Israel is about to ask for a king, and the book opens by naming the King it already has — and by showing that his rule begins, in this household, with a closed door and not a throne.

Joshua 5:14 · James 5:4

“Am I not better to thee than ten sons?” — a husband's word that only one husband can make true novel

Elkanah's last question weighs אָֽנֹכִי֙ — I myself — against ten sons, and Geneva takes it at face value: “Let this comfort you, that I love you no less than if you had many children.” Pulpit answers that he is simply wrong: “the joy of motherhood is quite distinct from that of conjugal affection.” ⚙ We read the question as true in a mouth that is not Elkanah's. The husband who can actually be better to a barren woman than ten sons is the one who tells the eunuch and the childless that he will give them, in his house, “a name better than sons and daughters,” and the one whose own house is built not by bên, the son as “builder of the family name,” but by his being that Son. ⚙ This is a figural reading, offered to be tested: none of our named voices makes it, and we mark it novel rather than dressing it in their authority.

Isaiah 56:5 · Ruth 4:15

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Keil & Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1860s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Text. Two places in this unit are textually unsettled, and we have not smoothed either. At 1:5 the Masoretic אַפָּ֑יִם yields four incompatible renderings in our own sources (double portion — K&D, Ellicott, Barnes, Benson, Syriac; a single portion, on the Septuagint's different consonants — Pulpit, Cambridge; a portion given sadly or angrily — Vulgate, Luther, Abarbanel; “a portion with a hearty cheer” — Geneva's margin). At 1:7 the first verb יַעֲשֶׂ֜ה is masculine but the following clause has a feminine subject; Barnes makes Peninnah the subject anyway, Pulpit prefers a passive pointing and reminds the reader that the Masoretic vowels “are human, and form no part of Holy Scripture,” while Gill and K&D keep Elkanah. Our literal renderings follow the consonantal text and name the dispute rather than resolving it.

Sources. All commentary is verbatim public-domain material quoted by anchor and resolved by code; nothing in a ✦ block is paraphrase. Two limits are worth stating. First, Matthew Henry's Concise note covers 1:1-8 as one block, so the identical paragraph stands behind every verse of the unit; we have quoted it once, at 1:8, rather than eight times. Second, the Keil & Delitzsch entries at 1:1, 1:2 and 1:3, the Ellicott entry at 1:3, the Gill entry at 1:3 and the Pulpit entries at 1:1 and 1:3 are capped in our brief, so material beyond the cap was not consulted; no claim here rests on the unread remainder. The Pulpit comment quoted at 1:6 heads verses 6, 7 and 8 jointly, and its sentence about “ten sons” is a judgement on v. 8 read from that combined note.

Uncertain. The site of Ramah is, in Cambridge's own words, “the most disputed problem of sacred topography,” and its identification with Arimathea is contested inside our source set (Gill cites Jerome for and Reland against); we have badged that thread flagged. The sense of Ephrathite at 1:1 — Ephraimite (Ellicott, Pulpit) or Bethlehemite (Benson, Poole, JFB) — is genuinely open, and BSB has chosen one side. The barren-mothers thread is commentator-attested (Cambridge, Barnes) and was not run through the Verifier; we say so on its badge. We have deliberately declined one attractive link: the “Shiloh” of Genesis 49:10 is not the place-name H7887 that stands in 1 Samuel 1:3, and we make no connection between them. Finally, every ⚙ paragraph in this unit — including the sola reading's count of the divine verbs, which any reader can check against the interlinear above — is fallible synthesis and is offered to be tested, not received.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)