Hannah

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

("grace".) The favorite wife of Elkanah, a Levite of Ramathaim Zophim. His other wife Peninnah, who had sons and daughters, acted as "her adversary provoking her sore for to make her fret, because the Lord had shut up her womb"; and this "year by year when she went up to the house of Jehovah," and when her husband gave her a double portion of the flesh at the sacrificial meal (Hebrew: one portion for two persons; to show her he loved her as dearly as if she had sons), which aggravated Peninnah's enmity; "therefore (instead of joy such as a festive season usually produces) she wept and did not eat" (1 Samuel 1). Elkanah comforted her saying, "Am not I better to thee than ten sons?" Polygamy begets jealousies, and is its own punishment ( Genesis 16:4-6).

Her sorrow drove her the more closely to God; "in bitterness of soul" she "prayed unto Jehovah and wept sore, and vowed, O Lord of hosts (who hast therefore all powers at Thy command), if Thou wilt, indeed look on the affliction of Thine handmaid and wilt give a man child, then I will give him unto Jehovah all his life, and no razor shall come upon his head." Her desire for a son was subordinate and subsidiary to her higher desire that he should be the instrument of a religious revival, then so much needed in Israel. As Samson, the last divinely sent deliverer, was a Nazarite from the womb so Hannah desired that her son should have Samsoh's consecration but without Samson's declension. Her vow implies how much she felt the need of some extraordinary instrument being raised to stem the tide of evil; hence instead of leaving it optional how long the Nazarite vow should last she destined her son to a vow for life.

"Only her lips moved but her voice was not heard (a proof how real prayer may be, though unspoken, for the still water is often deepest while the shallow stream babbles loudest), therefore Eli the high priest thought her drunken." Hasty judgments are often uncharitable, love thinketh no evil. It had been better if he had been as faultfinding where it was really needed, namely, with his own dissolute sons. To his reproach, which one already overweighted should have been spared, she meekly replied: "No, my lord; I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit, I have drunk no strong drink, but have poured out (emptying of all its contents, the definition of true prayer,  Psalms 62:8) my soul before Jehovah." Eli's reproof was turned into blessing, "the God of Israel grant thee thy petition." So she went her way and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad, for prayer dispels care ( Philippians 4:6).

In due time "Jehovah remembered her," and gave her a son whom she named Samuel , i.e. heard of God, "because I have asked him of the Lord." She did not go up again to the sanctuary until she had weaned him (the Hebrew weaning was not until three years of age) and could present him to the Lord for ever. The mention of Elkanah's offering "his vow" shows that he too had vowed for the birth of a son by his beloved Hannah His prayer, "only the Lord establish His word," refers to their joint hopes that their son might be an instrument of spiritual blessing to Israel. The three bullocks offered were, one a burnt offering whereby Samuel was consecrated to Jehovah, the other two the festal offering, i.e. the burnt offering and the thank offering which Elkanah presented yearly.

Hannah in presenting the child to Eli made herself known as the woman who had prayed for him in that place years before; "Jehovah hath granted what I asked, therefore I also make him one asked of Jehovah, as long as he liveth he shall be as one asked of Jehorah." The translation "lent" is unsuitable. Jehovah had given, not "lent," Samuel to her; still less could she "lend" him to Jehovah. Elkanah then "worshipped Jehovah." Hannah followed with her song of praise, the prototype of the Virgin Mary's song and Zacharias' song ( Luke 1:46 ff, and  Luke 1:68 ff), as Samuel typifies Jesus (compare Psalm 113). Hannah regards her case as an illustration of the eternal principle of God's moral government which was to find its highest realization in God's "Anointed," King Messiah. Joy in the Lord's salvation is the final portion of the now afflicted righteous, founded on the holiness of God ( Luke 2:2).

Proud speech escapes not God's cognizance ( Luke 2:3); Peninnah's case is a sample of the universal law, "by God actions are weighed" ( Daniel 5:27). Keil translated "to Him actions are weighed," i.e. His (God's) actions are just; alleging that it is men's hearts not their actions that are weighed ( Proverbs 16:2;  Proverbs 21:2;  Proverbs 24:12). Israel's now insulting foes shall yet be brought to account; "the bows of the mighty shall be broken," and stumbling Israel shall be "girded with strength." "The barren bears seven," i.e. many children, seven being the sacred number indicating divinely covenanted fullness and perfection. "And she that hath many children is waxed feeble;" "Jehovah bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up": soon to be illustrated in Israel's history under Samuel (1 Samuel 4-7).

"He will keep the feet of His saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness": the humble saints will be "kept" finally ( 1 Peter 1:5;  1 Peter 5:5-7), whereas the now loud boasting wicked shall be silenced ( Judges 1:15;  Matthew 22:12-13) in perpetual darkness. Her prophetic anticipations have been and are being fulfilled. The Philistine oppressors have long passed into oblivion, but trodden down Israel survives, awaiting the day when "the adversaries of Jehovah shall be broken to pieces," when "He shall judge the ends of the earth, and give strength unto His King, and exalt His Anointed," in whom alone the divine kingdom finds its culmination (Psalm 2).

Hannah made and brought Samuel yearly a coat ( Meeiyl ), the term for the coat of the high priest, which it resembled, though of simpler material and less ornament; it marked his close spiritual relation to Jehovah and His high priest) when she accompanied Elkanah to the yearly sacrifice. Her devoting him to Jehovah was, in accordance with Eli's prayer, followed by God giving her three more sons and two daughters, for He rewards superabundantly any sacrifice we make for Him ( 2 Chronicles 25:9;  2 Corinthians 9:10-11).

Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary

The wife of Elkanah. Her name signifies gracious; and she was, indeed, a very gracious woman. We have her history in  1 Samuel 1:1-28 and  1 Samuel 2:1-36. Her hymn is truly spiritual, and forms a blessed song concerning redemption. It is worthy remark, that though the patriarchs, and other holy men of old, before the days of Hannah, spoke of the Lord Jesus under various characters belonging to him, yet Hannah is the first that was commissioned by the Holy Ghost to speak of him as the Messiah, the Anointed. (See  1 Samuel 2:10) This was her honour. It is worthy remark, that the Lord so distinguished this Old Testament saint: to be the first preacher of Jesus as the Anointed, and Mary Magdalen, in the New Testament, to be the first preacher of Jesus in his resurrection. ( Mark 16:9)

And while I remark it in her history, I beg to call the reader's attention to an infinitely more important consideration on the subject. If the Lord Jesus was thus anointed, and called as such the Messiah (which is, in fact, the Anointed), so many ages before his incarnation, as the glorious Head of his body the church, was not the church, the body of that glorious Head, anointed also in him? Could the Head, in this instance, be considered detached and separated from the members? Surely Christ, as Christ, that is, Anointed, could not have been thus called, had not the Holy Ghost virtually and truly, in the secret councils of JEHOVAH, anointed him as much as God the Father called him. (See  Isaiah 42:6) And as such the church was as much called and anointed in him as his body, and that from everlasting; and in the everlasting love of God, the Holy Ghost presented to the Father the object of his everlasting love thus anointed, sanctified, and set apart, for his glory, and the spouse of the Lord Jesus. "A body hast thou prepared me." ( Hebrews 10:5) Oh! what a sweet and precious thought, or rather numberless thoughts of rapture and delight arise out of this one view of the church's oneness and connection with her glorious Head and Husband before all worlds! Eyeing Jesus thus, as the Anointed, in his secret name and character, before the open display of it in time, was, without all doubt, in relation to his spouse, the church. Had not the Father given his dear Son a church, Jesus had not given himself to the church, and for the church, neither would the Holy Ghost named him as the Messiah, the Anointed, before his incarnation; neither after would he have anointed him and given him without measure of his influence. But as we find the same name given of the Anointed before, as after, he became man, and tabernacled in the substance of our flesh, nothing can be more plain, in confirmation of this blessed truth, than that God the Holy Ghost had an everlasting love to the church, as the body of the Lord Jesus, before the world began, and anointed the glorious Head, and the church in her glorious Head, watched over her, protected her, blessed her, and set her apart, in all and every member of her, as "the church which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all." ( Ephesians 1:22-23)

Morrish Bible Dictionary

A pious woman, the wife of Elkanah. She deeply lamented that she had no child, and was on that account provoked by Peninnah, the other wife of Elkanah. She represented the feeble condition of Israel at that time, and in that condition prayer was her resource. In pouring out her soul before the Lord, she vowed that if God would hear her prayer and give her a man-child, she would give him unto Jehovah all the days of his life, and no razor should come upon his head. God heard her prayer, and she became the mother of Samuel (which means 'asked of God'), who, when he had been weaned, was given to be servant of Eli the priest. He was 'lent' or 'returned' to the Lord who gave him: see  1 Samuel 1:28 , margin.

Hannah prayed to the Lord, and the joy of her heart flowed out in a beautiful prophetic song, praising and exalting God for His salvation and wonderful doings, which would cause the poor to inherit the throne of glory. Led by the Spirit she spoke of Jehovah giving strength to Hiskingand exalting the horn of His Anointed. Her son Samuel anointed David who was a type of Christ. Thus the prayer of a feeble and barren woman brings in intervention and blessing of God by His Messiah. Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife, and she became the mother of three sons and two daughters.  1 Samuel 1:1-28;  1 Samuel 2:1-21 .

Bridgeway Bible Dictionary

As one of the two wives of Elkanah, Hannah lived in a household where there was unhappiness and tension. Elkanah’s other wife, Peninnah, mocked Hannah because of Hannah’s inability to have children ( 1 Samuel 1:2-8). In her distress Hannah cried to God for a son, promising that if God answered her prayer she would give her son back to God to serve him for life. God gave her a son and she named him Samuel ( 1 Samuel 1:9-20).

When Samuel was two or three years old, Hannah took him to the tabernacle and dedicated him to God for life. Features in her thanksgiving prayer reappear in the thanksgiving prayer of Mary the mother of Jesus ( 1 Samuel 2:1-10; cf.  Luke 1:46-55). When Hannah returned home, she left Samuel with the priest Eli, who was to bring him up as a dedicated servant of God. Hannah visited Samuel regularly and helped provide for his needs ( 1 Samuel 2:11;  1 Samuel 2:18-20). After Samuel, Hannah had five more children ( 1 Samuel 2:21).

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

HANNAH (‘grace’). The wife of Elkanah, and mother of Samuel. She came year by year to the sanctuary at Shiloh praying that she might become a mother; on one occasion she made a vow that if God would hear her prayer and grant her a ‘man child,’ she would dedicate him ‘to the Lord all the days of his life.’ Eli, the high priest, mistakes the silent movement of her lips as she prays, and accuses her of drunkenness; but when he finds out the mistake he has made, he gives her his blessing, and prays that her petition may be granted. Hannah returns home in peace, and in faith. In due time she gives birth to Samuel; when she has weaned him she brings him to Shiloh and dedicates him to God. It is on this occasion that the ‘song’ contained in   1 Samuel 2:1-10 is put into her mouth. Afterwards she comes to visit him once a year, bringing him each time a ‘little robe.’ Hannah bore her husband three sons and two daughters after the birth of Samuel (see Elkanah, Samuel).

W. O. E. Oesterley.

Easton's Bible Dictionary

 1 Samuel 1 2 Exodus 23:15 34:18 Deuteronomy 16:16 Exodus 13:10 1 Samuel 1:14-16 1 Samuel 1:27,28 Song of Solomon 2:1-10 Luke 1:46-55 1 Samuel 2:10 Exodus 28:31 1 Chronicles 15:27 1 Samuel 2:19 15:27 Job 2:12

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Han'nah. (Grace). One of the wives of Elkanah, and mother of Samuel. 1 Samuel 1-2. (B.C. 1141). A hymn of thanksgiving for the birth of her son is in the highest order of prophetic poetry, its resemblance to that of the Virgin Mary, compare  1 Samuel 2:1-10 with  Luke 1:46-55; see also  Psalms 113:1, has been noticed.

People's Dictionary of the Bible

Hannah ( Hăn'Nah ), Grace. One of the wives of Elkanah, and the mother of Samuel. Her song of praise on this occasion,  1 Samuel 2:1-10, is a magnificent hymn to the holiness and justice of Jehovah, and has been compared with the song of Mary.  Luke 1:46-55.

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

The pious wife of a Levite of Ramathaim-Zophim, named Elkanah, and mother of Samuel, B. C. 1171. She had earnestly besought the Lord for him, and freely devoted him to serve God according to her vow. She was afterwards blessed with three other sons and two daughters,  1 Samuel 1:1-2:21 .

Holman Bible Dictionary

 1 Samuel 1:2 1 Samuel 1:11Samuel

Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary

See Samuel .

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(Heb. Channah', חָגָּה , Graciousness: Sept. ῎Αννα ; (See Anna), a name known to the Phoenicians [Gesen. Mon. Phoen. p. 400], and attributed by Virgil to Dido's sister), wife of a Levite named Elkanah, and mother of Samuel (1 Samuel 1, 2). She was very dear to her husband, but, being childless, was much aggrieved by the insults of Elkanah's other wife, Peninnah, who was blessed with children. The family lived at Ramathaim- zophim, and, as the law required, there was a yearly journey to offer sacrifices at the sole altar of Jehovah, which was then at Shiloh. Women were not bound to attend; but pious females free from the cares of a family often did so, especially when the husband was a Levite. Every time that Hannah went there childless she declined to take part in the festivities which followed the sacrifices, being then, as it seems, peculiarly exposed to the taunts of her rival. At length, on one of these visits to Shiloh, while she prayed before returning home, she vowed to devote to the Almighty the son which she so earnestly desired ( Numbers 30:1 sq.). It seems to have been the custom to pronounce all vows at the holy place in a loud voice, under the immediate notice of the priest ( Deuteronomy 22:23;  Psalms 66:14); but Hannah prayed in a low tone, so that her lips only were seen to move. This attracted the attention of the high priest, Eli, who suspected that she had taken too much wine at the recent feast. From this suspicion Hannah easily vindicated herself, and returned home with a lightened heart. Before the end of that year Hannah became the rejoicing mother of a son, to whom the name of Samuel was given, and who was from his birth placed under the obligations of that condition of Nazariteship to which his mother had devoted him. B.C. 1142. Hannah went no more to Shiloh till her child was old enough to dispense with her maternal services, when she took him up with her to leave him there, as it appears was the custom when one already a Levite was placed under the additional obligations of Nazariteship. When he was presented in Sue form to the high priest, the mother took occasion to remind him of the former transaction: "For this child," she said, "I prayed, and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him"( 1 Samuel 1:27). Hannah's gladness afterwards found vent in an exulting chant, which furnishes a remarkable specimen of the early lyric poetry of the Hebrews (see Schlosser, Canticum Hannae, Erlangen, 1801), and of which many of the ideas and images were in after times repeated by the Virgin Mary on a somewhat similar occasion ( Luke 1:46 sq.; comp. also Psalms 113). It is especially remarkable as containing the first designation of the Messiah under that name. In the Targum it has been subjected to a process of magniloquent dilution, for which it would be difficult to find a parallel even in the pompous vagaries of that paraphrase (Eichhorn, Einl. 2, 68). After this Hannah failed not to visit Shiloh every year, bringing a new dress for her son, who remained under the eye and near the person of the high priest. (See Samuel). That great personage took kind notice of Hannah on these occasions, and bestowed his blessing upon her and her husband. The Lord repaid her abundantly for that which she had, to use her own expression, "lent to him;" for she had three sons and two daughters after Samuel (see Kitto's Daily Bible Illust.).

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

Han´nah, properly Channah (graciousness), wife of a Levite named Elkanah, and mother of Samuel. She was very dear to her husband, but being childless was much aggrieved by the insults of Elkanah's other wife Peninnah, who was blessed with children. The family lived at Ramathaim-zophim, and, as the law required, there was a yearly journey to offer sacrifices at the sole altar of Jehovah, which was then at Shiloh. Women were not bound to attend; but pious females free from the cares of a family often did so, especially when the husband was a Levite. Every time that Hannah went there childless she declined to take part in the festivities which followed the sacrifices, being then, as it seems, peculiarly exposed to the taunts of her rival. At length, on one of these visits to Shiloh, while she prayed before returning home, she vowed to devote to the Almighty the son which she so earnestly desired (, sq.). It seems to have been the custom to pronounce all vows at the holy place in a loud voice, under the immediate notice of the priest : but Hannah prayed in a low tone, so that her lips only were seen to move. This attracted the attention of the high-priest, Eli, who suspected that she had taken too much wine at the recent feast. From this suspicion Hannah easily vindicated herself, and returned home with a lightened heart. Before the end of that year Hannah became the rejoicing mother of a son, to whom the name of Samuel was given, and who was from his birth placed under the obligations of that condition of Nazariteship to which his mother had vowed him. B.C. 1171.

Hannah went no more to Shiloh till her child was old enough to dispense with her maternal services, when she took him up with her to leave him there, as it appears was the custom when one already a Levite was placed under the additional obligations of Nazariteship. When he was presented in due form to the high-priest, the mother took occasion to remind him of the former transaction: 'For this child,' she said, 'I prayed, and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him' . Hannah's gladness afterwards found vent in an exulting chant, which furnishes a remarkable specimen of the early lyric poetry of the Hebrews, and of Which many of the ideas and images were in after times repeated by the Virgin Mary on a somewhat similar occasion (, sq.).

After this Hannah failed not to visit Shiloh every year, bringing a new dress for her son, who remained under the eye and near the person of the high-priest [SAMUEL]. That great personage took kind notice of Hannah on these occasions, and bestowed his blessing upon her and her husband. The Lord repaid her abundantly for that which she had, to use her own expression, 'lent to him;' for she had three sons and two daughters after Samuel.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

han´a ( חנּה , ḥannāh , "grace," "favor"; Ἅννα , Hánna ): One of the two wives of Elkanah, an Ephraimite who lived at Ramathaim-zophim. Hannah visited Shiloh yearly with her husband to offer sacrifices, for there the tabernacle was located. She was greatly distressed because they had no children. She therefore prayed earnestly for a male child whom she promised to dedicate to the Lord from his birth. The prayer was heard, and she called her son's name Samuel ("God hears"). When he was weaned he was carried to Shiloh to be trained by Eli, the priest (  1 Samuel 1 ). Hannah became the mother of five other children, three sons and two daughters ( 1 Samuel 2:2 ). Her devotion in sending Samuel a little robe every year is one of the tenderest recorded instances of maternal love ( 1 Samuel 2:19 ). She was a prophetess of no ordinary talent, as is evident from her elevated poetic deliverance elicited by God's answer to her prayer ( 1 Samuel 2:1-10 ).