CRITICAL AND EXPOSITORY NOTES.—
1 Samuel 1:2. “Two wives.” “Perhaps he took the second on account of Hannah’s barrenness” (Wordsworth).
1 Samuel 1:3. “Yearly.” Probably to the Passover, as that was the only feast which the whole family were accustomed to attend (Luke 2:41). “To worship and sacrifice.” “The beautiful picture of Israelitish piety which we have in the following account of Elkanah and Hannah is introduced by these features, as the chief and fundamental ones. The worship relates to the name of the Lord, who dwells in His chosen place in the sanctuary, and is the expression of the remembrance of this name before the Lord. The sacrifice is the embodied prayer. In the sacrifice worship is presented to the Lord as the act by which the offerer brings himself and all that he has to the Lord” (Lange’s Commentary). If the Law given by God to Moses had been observed, Elkanah would (unless he was now more than fifty years of age, which seems unlikely) have been required to officiate in his turn in the service of the tabernacle. (See Numbers 8:24-26). That he did not do so is only one evidence, among many, of the low state of religion at the time. “Lord of Hosts,” “Jehovah Zebaoth.” “Here first used as a Divine name. It represents Jehovah as ruler of the heavenly hosts, i.e., the angels (Genesis 32:2) and the stars (Isaiah 40:26); it is simply applied to Jehovah as the God of the universe” (Keil). “This appellation occurs sixty-two times in Isaiah, sixty-five in Jeremiah, and not once in Job or Ezekiel” (Wordsworth). “Shiloh.” i.e., “Rest.” The tabernacle was set up here in the days of Joshua (Joshua 18:1). Its position is described in Judges 21:19. This minute description has enabled modern travellers to identify it. “This quiet place, situated on a hill (Psalms 78:54), was the scene of the mighty revolution brought about in the history of the theocracy by the call of Samuel to be the prophet of God, and by the overthrow of the priestly house of Eli” (Lange’s Commentary). “And the two sons of Eli,” etc. They performed the priestly functions for their father, on account of his great age.
1 Samuel 1:4. “When Elkanah offered.” “That this sacrifice was a praise or thank-offering (Leviticus 7:15) is clear from what follows” (Lange’s Commentary). “Portions.” Of that part of the peace-offerings which belonged to them that offered. This was the whole, except the fat, which belonged to the Lord, and the breast and the right shoulder, which belonged to the priest, This feast was intended to be of a joyful character (Deuteronomy 12:12; Deuteronomy 16:11).
1 Samuel 1:5. “A worthy portion.” This phrase has been much disputed, but it seems most likely to mean a double portion. This was an Oriental mode of expressing favour. See Genesis 43:34. “The Lord had shut up her womb.” Childlessness was not only held to be a misfortune, but a Divine punishment (Genesis 19:31; Genesis 30:1; Genesis 30:23).
1 Samuel 1:6. “Her adversary.” i.e., Peninnah.
1 Samuel 1:7. “He did so year by year,” i.e., every year Elkanah gave Hannah a double portion.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— 1 Samuel 1:2-8
A TROUBLED HOUSEHOLD
I. A violation of the Divine intention in the institution of marriage. Elkanah had two wives. God, by creating one wife only as the helpmeet for the first man, declared against polygamy and bigamy. Our Lord, in expounding to the Pharisees the law of divorce, speaks decidedly upon the subject. “For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh” (Matthew 19:5). Apostolic teaching reiterates the law. “Let every man have his own wife, and every woman her own husband” (1 Corinthians 7:2). “Let every one of you in particular so love his wife, even as himself” (Ephesians 5:1). The violation of the Divine intention in this institution originated in a bad man. Lamech is the first person of whom it is recorded that he “took unto him two wives” (Genesis 4:19), and his own words tell us that he was a man of blood. A descendant of the first murderer, he trod in the same murderous path. His example was not followed by those sons of Seth, who were honoured to re-found the human race. Noah and his three sons entered into the ark, each having his one wife (Genesis 7:13), but the sin of Lamech became more and more common until it grew into a custom, and many better men than he thus profaned God’s holy ordinance. Abraham, Jacob, and Elkanah were good men, yet they all in this respect followed in the forbidden path first trodden by a man-slayer. A miner working in darkness unconsciously becomes blackened by the dusty atmosphere in which he is working. Imperceptibly to himself, one sooty particle after another settles upon his body and his raiment, until he becomes entirely assimilated in colour to the blackness and dirt all around him. The custom of society unconsciously colours men’s characters and habits. Their very conscience is influenced by the moral atmosphere which they breathe—they become coloured by the thoughts and actions of those by whom they are surrounded, and often yield their consent to a wicked custom, the sin of which they do not perceive because of the moral darkness in which they live. It was doubtless so with those of the patriarchs who practised bigamy or polygamy, and it was so also with Elkanah.
II. This violation of Divine intention becoming a means of chastisement. The custom of polygamy was doubtless very common in the Hebrew nation, and paved the way to much gross iniquity, and led them to the adoption of many other corrupt practices of the heathen nations, for which, as a nation, they suffered severe chastisement. Here we have an instance of chastisement in the case of an individual and upright man. Although he had committed no exceptional sin—although he had only followed other good men in conforming to a very common custom—he could not escape the inevitable retribution which must always follow breaking any fence which God has placed about man’s path. Doubtless Hannah would have been sorrowful at the absence of children if she had been Elkanah’s only wife, but it would not have been aggravated by the insolence of Peninnah. Custom had quarried these two upper and nether mill-stones, and between them Elkanah’s domestic bliss must have been ground to powder, for the strife was so bitter that it entered even into the service of the house of God. (See 1 Samuel 1:7.) The history of the world confirms the teaching of this history of a single family. The nations who adhere to God’s original intention in the marriage state are spared from many sorrows, and avoid many crimes which must always be the fruit of such a morally unhealthy and unnatural custom. The joys of the home life are unknown where polygamy is practised—a terrible penalty is paid by all those nations who thus violate God’s holy and blessed institution.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
1 Samuel 1:1. Elkanah was one of the sons of Korah. Of that gainsaying “sinner against his own soul” came Samuel. Homo ille virtute simillimus.—Trapp.
1 Samuel 1:2. Polygamy might now plead age and example. Ill customs are like fashions of attire, which at the first are disliked as uncomely, yet, when once they are grown common, are taken up of the gravest. Yet this sin, as then current with the time, could not make Elkanah not religious; the house of God in Shiloh was duly frequented by him, and once a year with all his family. The continuance of an unknown sin cannot hinder the uprightness of a man’s heart with God; as a man may have a mole on his back, and yet think his skin clear; the least touch of wilfulness mars his sincerity.—Bishop Hall.
1 Samuel 1:3. Elkanah’s piety in maintaining a regular attendance on the Divine ordinances is the more worthy of notice, that the character of the two priests who administered them was notoriously bad. But doubtless he believed and acted on the belief that the ordinances were effectual means of salvation, not from any virtue in them, or in those who administered them, but from the grace of God being communicated through them.—Fausset.
This title, “The Lord of Hosts” (see Critical Notes), seems to be inserted designedly by the sacred historian at the beginning of this book, which relates the craving of Israel for an earthly king, when the Lord was their King, and the setting up of an earthly kingdom in Saul. It is like a preliminary protest against that act of national faithlessness.—Wordsworth.
The offering was the deed which established the faithlessness of the praying word.—Starke.
This subject-matter of adoration is to be referred to the three following heads: Firstly, that when about to adore God we recognise that we owe all things to Him, and in giving thanks for past blessings we implore a still further increase of His gifts; secondly, that confessing our sins as suppliant and guilty, we pray Him to grant us true knowledge of our sins and repentance, and to pardon us; thirdly, and finally, that denying ourselves and taking His yoke upon our shoulders, we profess ourselves ready to render Him true obedience, and to conform our affections to the rule of His law and His will alone.—Calvin.
1 Samuel 1:4. The whole family take part in the feast of the peace-offerings. So as to the idol-worship in Jeremiah 7:18. Both this passage and that, as to true religion and false, may impress upon us the importance of family worship and family religion.—Lange’s Commentary.
1 Samuel 1:5. “The Lord had shut up her womb.” This is the language of piety, which refers all to God, and knows only one source of blessings; we only have that which He gives, and we cannot have that which he refuses to us.—Duguet.
Peninnah may have the more children, but barren Hannah hath the most love. If Hannah should have had both, she had been proud, and her rival despised. God knows how to disperse His favours so that everyone may have cause both for thankfulness and humiliation; whilst there is no one that hath all, no one but hath some—Bishop Hall.
Children were then regarded as a blessing, and the correctness of this view is confirmed by the inspired writers, Psalms 113:9; Psalms 127:3-5; Psalms 128:3. The contrary feeling, which is now so rapidly growing in America, is evil, both in its causes and in its consequences.—American Translator of Lange’s Commentary.
1 Samuel 1:7. Peninnah is an example of those who think themselves to be saints because they participate in holy things and partake of Divine blessings, but Hannah is a model of true penitents, seeking not to justify herself since the Lord seemed to condemn her. She judged herself unworthy to partake of the sacred feast since she deemed herself under the displeasure of God.—Duguet.
1 Samuel 1:8. In a devout marriage, the love of the one party should not only be to the other a fountain of consolation and of quieting as to painful dispensations of the Lord, but for whatever by the Lord’s will is lacking in good fortune and joy it should seek to offer all the richer compensation.—Lange’s Commentary.
In Elkanah we have an example of a most excellent husband, who patiently tolerated the insolent humour of Peninnah, and comforted dejected Hannah with words full of tender affection, which was truly, in St. Peter’s words, to dwell with his wives according to knowledge.—Patrick.
As the marriage bond is much closer than that between parents and children, it follows that husband and wife must hold each other nearer and dearer than all children.—J. Lange.
1 Samuel 1:1-8. The priestly calling of the man in his house.
1. In the close connection of his whole house with the service in the house of the Lord (prayer and offering).
2. In the nurture and admonition of the children for the Lord (see comment on 1 Samuel 1:4).
3. In expelling and keeping at a distance the evil spirit of unlovingness and dissension in the members of a family.
4. In the constant exhibition of faithful, comforting, helping love towards his wife. The preservation of genuine piety amid domestic troubles.
1. In persevering prayer, when the Lord proves faith by not fulfilling particular desires and hopes.
2. In enduring patience towards vexatious members of the family.
3. In consoling and supporting love towards those members who are easily assailed. Lange’s Commentary.