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zeborahHannah (1 Samuel 1:2 - 2:21) is one of her husband's two wives. She has no children and is pretty miserable about it, though her husband does his best to comfort her by giving her extra meat and saying "Don't I mean more to you than ten sons?" -- but the other wife, who has a number of children, keeps teasing her about her barrenness, year after year, until she weeps and loses her appetite.
One particularly bitter day, Hannah goes to pray at the temple and promises God that if he'll give her a son, she'll dedicate him to God's service in the temple. The priest notices that she's pretty emotional and she's silent even though her lips are moving, so he scolds her for being drunk; Hannah defends herself as "a woman who is deeply troubled", praying out of "great anguish and grief". He blesses her, and she goes away feeling better and with her appetite restored.
Even better, in due course she gets her long-desired son (Samuel, who the next two books are named for). She tells her husband, "After he's weaned, I'm going to take him to the temple to serve God for the rest of his life." He says, "If you like, dear." (...Well, I guess he's got other sons by his other wife. Or something.) So she does, and tells the priest, "Hi, remember me? I was praying for a son, and now I've got him he's all yours!"
She then gets her own Magnificat, which is actually quite a lot more magnificent than Mary's more famous one. It focuses, predictably, on the general theme of "She who was barren has borne seven children, but she who has had many sons pines away: HA ha, I win!"
Despite my eye-rolling above, Hannah doesn't completely abandon her son: every year when they visit the temple she makes him a new robe and takes it to him. The priest prays for her to have more children to replace Samuel, and lo, she gets another three sons and daughters. This probably makes her about even with her husband's other wife; one hopes they eventually stop gloating over each other and learn to get along.
One particularly bitter day, Hannah goes to pray at the temple and promises God that if he'll give her a son, she'll dedicate him to God's service in the temple. The priest notices that she's pretty emotional and she's silent even though her lips are moving, so he scolds her for being drunk; Hannah defends herself as "a woman who is deeply troubled", praying out of "great anguish and grief". He blesses her, and she goes away feeling better and with her appetite restored.
Even better, in due course she gets her long-desired son (Samuel, who the next two books are named for). She tells her husband, "After he's weaned, I'm going to take him to the temple to serve God for the rest of his life." He says, "If you like, dear." (...Well, I guess he's got other sons by his other wife. Or something.) So she does, and tells the priest, "Hi, remember me? I was praying for a son, and now I've got him he's all yours!"
She then gets her own Magnificat, which is actually quite a lot more magnificent than Mary's more famous one. It focuses, predictably, on the general theme of "She who was barren has borne seven children, but she who has had many sons pines away: HA ha, I win!"
Despite my eye-rolling above, Hannah doesn't completely abandon her son: every year when they visit the temple she makes him a new robe and takes it to him. The priest prays for her to have more children to replace Samuel, and lo, she gets another three sons and daughters. This probably makes her about even with her husband's other wife; one hopes they eventually stop gloating over each other and learn to get along.
