He had two wives, one named Hannah and the other Peninnah. And Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none.
Parallel translations
- WEB He had two wives. The name of one was Hannah, and the name of other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.
- KJV 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.
- NKJV And he had two wives: the name of one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.
- NASB And he had two wives: the name of one was Hannah and the name of the other Peninnah; and Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.
- NLT Elkanah had two wives, Hannah and Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah did not.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Elkanah had two wives, Hannah and Peninnah; Peninnah had children but Hannah was barren. This sets up the central tension and grief of the chapter.
Overview
The note of barrenness recalls the matriarchs Sarah, Rebekah, and Rachel, where God repeatedly opened a closed womb to advance His redemptive plan. While Scripture records the practice of having two wives, it consistently portrays the resulting rivalry as a source of pain, not blessing. Hannah's childlessness becomes the occasion through which God will give Israel a deliverer.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Gen 29:31When the LORD saw that Leah was unloved, He opened her womb; but Rachel was barren.
- Luke 1:7But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well along in years.
- Deut 21:15–17If a man has two wives, one beloved and the other unloved, and both bear him sons, but the unloved wife has the firstborn son,
- Judg 13:2Now there was a man from Zorah named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, whose wife was barren and had no children.
- Judg 8:30Gideon had seventy sons of his own, since he had many wives.
- Gen 4:23Then Lamech said to his wives: “Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; wives of Lamech, listen to my speech. For I have slain a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me.
- Matt 19:8Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because of your hardness of heart; but it was not this way from the beginning.
- Gen 16:1–2Now Abram’s wife Sarai had borne him no children, but she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar.
- Gen 25:21Later, Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren. And the LORD heard his prayer, and his wife Rebekah conceived.
- Gen 29:23–29But when evening came, Laban took his daughter Leah and gave her to Jacob, and he slept with her.
- Gen 4:19And Lamech married two women, one named Adah and the other Zillah.
- Luke 2:36There was also a prophetess named Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher, who was well along in years. She had been married for seven years,
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Christ at the center
The rise of the anointed king after Israel's failed first choice points to the true Anointed One (Messiah means 'anointed'), the shepherd-king after God's own heart from Bethlehem.
How 1 Samuel 1:2 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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