Bible Strands
1 Samuel 2:5
The well-fed hire themselves out for food, but the starving hunger no more. The barren woman gives birth to seven, but she who has many sons pines away.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Hannah speaks at the sanctuary, addressing the Lord after dedicating her son Samuel. The declaration functions as part of her vow, contrasting human vulnerability with divine sovereignty.
The words — שְׂבֵעִים (se.ve.'Im) denotes satisfied people, while נִשְׂכָּ֔רוּ (nis.Ka.ru) means they hire themselves out. Together they describe how the prosperous become desperate for basic sustenance.
The thread — The motif of divine reversal runs through Luke 1:53, where the hungry are filled and the rich sent away empty, and through Psalms 113:9, which notes God settling the barren woman as a joyful mother.
Why it lands — The text states that human prosperity and fruitfulness are unstable, and that God alone determines who is fed or emptied, who bears children or withers. It demands recognition that security rests on divine action, not on human status or accumulation.
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
They that were full have hired out themselves for bread; and they that were hungry ceased: so that the barren hath born seven; and she that hath many children is waxed feeble.
Cross-references
- Psalms 113:9 He settles the barren woman in her home as a joyful mother to her children. Hallelujah!
- Jeremiah 15:9 The mother of seven will grow faint; she will breathe her last breath. Her sun will set while it is still day; she will be disgraced and humiliated. And the rest I will put to the sword in the presence of their enemies,” declares the LORD.
- Luke 1:53 He has filled the hungry with good things, but has sent the rich away empty.
- Psalms 34:10 Young lions go lacking and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.
- 1 Samuel 1:6 Because the LORD had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival would provoke her viciously to taunt her.
- 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.
- Luke 16:25 But Abraham answered, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things. But now he is comforted here, while you are in agony.
- 1 Samuel 1:20 So in the course of time, Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying, “Because I have asked for him from the LORD.”
- Galatians 4:27 For it is written: “Rejoice, O barren woman, who bears no children; break forth and cry aloud, you who have never travailed; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.”