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.
Ver. 2. And he had two wives.] Polygamy was ever a sin, though in the patriarchs and ancient saints, a sin of ignorance. "It was not so from the beginning." Mat 19:8 Mal 2:15 Lamech, of the cursed seed of Cain, first brought it in: but his second wife Zillah was but the shadow of a wife, a as her name also signifieth. And although before the law given by Moses, polygamy is not reprehended; yet in Lev 18:18 it is flatly forbidden, "Neither shalt thou take a wife to her sister," or one wife to another, "to vex her," as here Peninnah did Hannah. This passage good Elkanah and those other ancients mistook, as it is thought, by taking the word "sister" for one so by blood, which was spoken of a sister by neighbourhood, or by nation as those phrases "to vex her," and "during her life," do evince.
a Quomodo Menander, φιλου σκιαν, dixit.