Bible Strands
1 Samuel 1:2
He had two wives, one named Hannah and the other Peninnah. And Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator introduces Elkanah’s household immediately before describing his annual pilgrimage to Shiloh. The verse establishes the domestic baseline of his marriage just prior to the narrative’s central conflict.
The words — The text uses שְׁתֵּי (she.Tei), meaning “two,” and נָשִׁים (na.Shim), meaning “wives,” to state the marital count. It then uses חַנָּה (cha.Nah) and פְּנִנָּה (pe.ni.Nah) to name the women, immediately recording Peninnah’s fertility contrasted with Hannah’s childlessness.
The thread — The structural pattern of a man with two wives where one is barren appears in Genesis 16:1 and Genesis 25:21, while Genesis 4:23 records Lamech addressing two wives without mentioning fertility.
Why it lands — The verse requires the reader to accept a factual household description without moral commentary, establishing the biological condition that drives the subsequent plot. It asks the reader to track how the narrative responds to a stated reality rather than a cultural preference.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- Genesis 4:23 Then Lamech said to his wives: “Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; wives of Lamech, listen to my speech. For I have slain a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me.
- Genesis 16:1 Now Abram’s wife Sarai had borne him no children, but she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar.
- Genesis 25:21 Later, Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren. And the LORD heard his prayer, and his wife Rebekah conceived.
- Genesis 29:23 But when evening came, Laban took his daughter Leah and gave her to Jacob, and he slept with her.
- Genesis 29:31 When the LORD saw that Leah was unloved, He opened her womb; but Rachel was barren.
- Deuteronomy 21:15 If a man has two wives, one beloved and the other unloved, and both bear him sons, but the unloved wife has the firstborn son,
- Judges 8:30 Gideon had seventy sons of his own, since he had many wives.
- Judges 13:2 Now there was a man from Zorah named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, whose wife was barren and had no children.
- Matthew 19:8 Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because of your hardness of heart. But it was not this way from the beginning.
- Luke 1:7 But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well along in years.