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.
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.
- BSB He had two wives, one named Hannah and the other Peninnah. And Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none.
- 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 29:31And when the LORD saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb: but Rachel was barren.
- Luke 1:7And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years.
- Deut 21:15–17If a man have two wives, one beloved, and another hated, and they have born him children, both the beloved and the hated; and if the firstborn son be hers that was hated:
- Judg 13:2And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren, and bare not.
- Judg 8:30And Gideon had threescore and ten sons of his body begotten: for he had many wives.
- Gen 4:23And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt.
- Matt 19:8He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.
- Gen 16:1–2Now Sarai Abram’s wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.
- Gen 25:21And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
- Gen 29:23–29And it came to pass in the evening, that he took Leah his daughter, and brought her to him; and he went in unto her.
- Gen 4:19And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah.
- Luke 2:36And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser: she was of a great age, and had lived with an husband seven years from her virginity;
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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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