Bible Strands
1 Samuel 1:8
“Hannah, why are you crying?” her husband Elkanah asked. “Why won’t you eat? Why is your heart so grieved? Am I not better to you than ten sons?”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Elkanah addresses his wife Hannah in Shiloh after a festival meal, questioning her prolonged grief and refusal to eat that followed years of taunting (1 Samuel 1:7–8).
The words — The Hebrew לָ֣/מֶה (La./meh) repeats to emphasize Elkanah’s urgent inquiry into the cause of her weeping (תִבְכִּי, tiv.Ki) and refusal to eat.
The thread — The tension between human comfort and spiritual sorrow appears in Ruth 4:15, Job 6:14, and Isaiah 54:6, where relational support intersects with divine consolation.
Why it lands — The passage requires the reader to acknowledge that human reassurance, even from a devoted spouse, cannot resolve a soul’s burden without divine intervention.
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
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?
Cross-references
- Ruth 4:15 He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.”
- Job 6:14 A despairing man should have the kindness of his friend, even if he forsakes the fear of the Almighty.
- Isaiah 54:6 For the LORD has called you back, like a wife deserted and wounded in spirit, like the rejected wife of one’s youth,” says your God.
- Psalms 43:4 Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my greatest joy. I will praise You with the harp, O God, my God.
- John 20:13 “Woman, why are you weeping?” they asked. “Because they have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I do not know where they have put Him.”
- John 20:15 “Woman, why are you weeping?” Jesus asked. “Whom are you seeking?” Thinking He was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried Him off, tell me where you have put Him, and I will get Him.”
- 1 Thessalonians 5:14 And we urge you, brothers, to admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, and be patient with everyone.
- 2 Samuel 12:16 David pleaded with God for the boy. He fasted and went into his house and spent the night lying in sackcloth on the ground.
- 2 Kings 8:12 “Why is my lord weeping?” asked Hazael. “Because I know the evil you will do to the Israelites,” Elisha replied. “You will set fire to their fortresses, kill their young men with the sword, dash their little ones to pieces, and rip open their pregnant women.”
- Isaiah 54:1 “Shout for joy, O barren woman, who bears no children; break forth in song and cry aloud, you who have never travailed; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband,” says the LORD.