Elkanah goeth yearly up to the feast at Shiloh with his two wives: Hannah is barren; Peninnah upbraideth her, 1-6. Hannah prayeth fervently to the Lord for a son; promising to separate him a Nazarite unto God, 7-12. Eli thinking her drunk rebuketh her; upon her answer, blesseth her, 13-18. She returneth home with Elkanah, and conceiveth; beareth Samuel; offereth her sacrifice; performs her promise concerning him, 19-28.
Jonathan Edwards' "Notes on the Bible": '1 Samuel 1-2. By Hannah's song after the birth of Samuel, I am ready to think that Peninnah and Hannah were designed for types of the church of the Jews, and the church of the Gentiles. The expressions are much like those that are used in the prophets, when speaking of the calling of the Gentiles. The whole song, and especially 1 Samuel 2:10, seems evidently to refer to gospel times, particularly these expressions, "The Lord shall judge the ends of the earth, and shall give strength unto his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed." By God's king and anointed, she did not mean any king that then ruled over Israel, fo…
Jonathan Edwards' "Prayer-hearing God": 'He sometimes manifests his acceptance of their prayers, by special discoveries of his mercy and sufficiency, which he makes to them in prayer, or immediately after. While they are praying, he gives them sweet views of his glorious grace, purity, sufficiency, and sovereignty; and enables them, with great quietness, to rest in him, to leave themselves and their prayers with him, submitting to his will, and trusting in his grace and faithfulness. Such a manifestation God seems to have made of himself in prayer to Hannah, which quieted and composed her mind, and took away her sadness. We read (1 Samuel 1) how earnest she was, and how exercised in her mind, and that she wa…
Matthew Henry: 'The history of Samuel here begins as early as that of Samson did, even before he was born, as afterwards the history of John the Baptist and our blessed Saviour. Some of the scripture-worthies drop out of the clouds, as it were, and their first appearance is in their full growth and lustre. But others are accounted for from the birth, and from the womb, and from the conception. What God says of the prophet Jeremiah is true of all: "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee," Jeremiah 1:5. But some great men were brought into the world with more observation than others, and were more early distinguished from common persons, as Samuel for one…