(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
1 Samuel 1:1–8, “Now there was a certain man of Ramathaimzophim, of mount Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephrathite: 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. And this man went up out of his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice unto the LORD of hosts in Shiloh. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the priests of the LORD, were there. And when the time was that Elkanah offered, he gave to Peninnah his wife, and to all her sons and her daughters, portions: But unto Hannah he gave a worthy portion; for he loved Hannah: but the LORD had shut up her womb. And her adversary also provoked her sore, for to make her fret, because the LORD had shut up her womb. And as he did so year by year, when she went up to the house of the LORD, so she provoked her; therefore she wept, and did not eat. Then said Elkanah her husband to her, Hannah, why weepest thou? and why eatest thou not? and why is thy heart grieved? am not I better to thee than ten sons?”
We move from one story of a woman in trouble due to decisions made by her husband and sons who was rescued by one of her relatives to the story of another woman who was suffering deeply because her husband had made a decision that was not in her best interests. The man was called Elkanah who was descended from a man called Zuph. We only read about Zuph three times in the Bible, here, in 1 Sam 9: 5 as the name of a region and in 1 Chron 6: 35 where we find that Zuph is descended from Kohath the son of Levi. The woman in question was called Hannah but she suffered because her husband was married to two wives. When the Lord first established the institution of marriage (See Gen 2: 23, 24) it was designed to be between one man and one woman and they were to be complementary. However, when a man married two different women it is impossible for them to be joined together and the two wives become competitors. This was true of Elkanah’s family, Hannah and no children but Peninnah, the competitor wife, had children and she bullied Hannah continually because she believed that she had an advantage and her sons would inherit everything. So we see the seed of later problems in Old Testament history where we find the man was not loyal to his wife but to himself and the woman was not loyal to her husband but her father and her sons. At that time, the Eli was the priest and his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas acted on his behalf. Hannah was suffering deep pain in her soul because she was childless but Elkanah was selfish enough not to care for her and tell that she didn’t need children of her own as long as she had part of him.
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