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.
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.
- 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.
- 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 29:31Yahweh saw that Leah was hated, and he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.
- Luke 1:7But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they both were well advanced in years.
- Deut 21:15–17If a man has two wives, the one beloved, and the other hated, and they have borne him children, both the beloved and the hated; and if the firstborn son is hers who was hated;
- Judg 13:2There was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren, and childless.
- Judg 8:30Gideon had seventy sons conceived from his body, for he had many wives.
- Gen 4:23Lamech said to his wives, “Adah and Zillah, hear my voice. You wives of Lamech, listen to my speech, for I have slain a man for wounding me, a young man for bruising me.
- Matt 19:8He said to them, “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it has not been so.
- Gen 16:1–2Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, bore him no children. She had a servant, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.
- Gen 25:21Isaac entreated Yahweh for his wife, because she was barren. Yahweh was entreated by him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
- Gen 29:23–29In the evening, he took Leah his daughter, and brought her to him. He went in to her.
- Gen 4:19Lamech took two wives: the name of the first one was Adah, and the name of the second one was Zillah.
- Luke 2:36There was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher (she was of a great age, having lived with a 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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