1 Samuel 1 Footnotes

1:2 Having more than one wife is permitted in the Bible (Ex 21:10), but represents a concession that departs from the divine ideal. God’s original plan for the family—still his ideal—is to have one man married to one woman. Biblical evidence for this is found in the fact that God created one woman, Eve, as a uniquely suitable helper for one man, Adam (Gn 2:18-24; Mt 19:4-6). He did this before sin had entered the world and corrupted the divine plan, and this ideal has never changed. With Adam and Eve’s sin, however, came death, disease, and other distortions of God’s original plan. Sometimes women, who through childbirth were supposed to enable a couple to be fruitful and multiply, were barren. In such cases, ancient western Asian custom permitted men to take a second wife for the purpose of producing an heir (Gn 16:1-3; 30:1-4).

Elkanah, like Abraham and Jacob, was a good man who made a troublesome choice to solve his family problem. By taking a second wife he introduced much unneeded conflict into the home (1Sm 1:6). In the end his efforts made little difference, since God gave him many children through his once-barren wife Hannah (1:20; 2:21).

1:11 Hannah’s vow appears to be bargaining with God; was this appropriate? It is clear throughout Scripture that God wants people to have an authentic, personal relationship with him—one that involves the expression of true feelings in a spirit of “give and take.” If one can ask certain things of the Lord in faith (Mt 21:22), one can also promise him something. Hannah was a pious woman who profoundly believed that God was powerful and good. She had suffered humiliation and insult for years due to her childlessness, and was pleading desperately with God to give her a child. Her offer was far superior to that of pagans in the region, who might offer to sacrifice a child as a macabre gift to their deity (2Kg 17:17). Hannah offered to give the son she requested as a living sacrifice, dedicating his lifelong services to the Lord. The Lord was not obligated to respond to her vow, but he had the right to accept her offer. And accept it he did.