Now that Samuel is so famous as a prophet, people often ask me what he was like as a child and whether there really was anything special about his birth.

Of course, there was something special, but most of what was special was his mother – and her attitude.

The basic story that people tell about Samuel is all true, but there are a few details that generally get left out that I’d like to include as well.

When I was young, I met a wonderful girl: godly and altogether delightful. A while later, we married and were very happy together.  After a few years of marriage, though, a cloud began to overshadow our happiness: we had no children.

Then my parents spoke to me and made a suggestion.  I disregarded it at the time, but they worked on me over the next few months until finally I agreed to do what they suggested.

I wish that I hadn’t.

Their suggestion was that I marry another woman in order to have a son to continue the family name.

Initially I felt that our having a child was something that was under God’s control, and was nothing for me to worry about.  Nevertheless, my parents pointed out that taking a second wife was not really so unusual, and I had to admit that they were right.  They even had a woman in mind – the oldest daughter of a friend of the family.  I wouldn’t say that they had been having problems finding someone to marry her, but she certainly could be awkward at times.

My first wife, and the love of my life, was Hannah, and she was willing to go along with the plan if I thought it was best.  I didn’t, but continuing the family line is important and Hannah didn’t seem to be able to have children.

So I married Peninnah, and from then on life was difficult.  At first it wasn’t too bad, although, as I said, Peninnah could be difficult at times.  Then she had a child – which had, after all, been the point of the whole setup – and her behaviour towards Hannah became a source of real trouble in the family.

As she had more children over the years, her sneering at and teasing of Hannah became more and more pronounced.  Peninnah also took every possible opportunity to try to turn me against Hannah.  She constantly reminded me that she was the wife who had given me all my children.  Not a week passed without her explicitly presenting her oldest son to me as my first and most important child.  She criticised Hannah in so many different ways that I couldn’t list them all if I tried.  According to Peninnah, Hannah was not a real woman because she couldn’t have children; she must be evil because God wouldn’t give her children; and she had probably been unfaithful to me, which was why she couldn’t have children.  The attempts went on and on, and I didn’t believe any of them.  But, short of beating her into submission, I couldn’t stop her saying them.

She even tried to convince me that Hannah was always rude and cruel to the children, but I knew Hannah too well to believe that either.  I had watched Peninnah and Hannah carefully as the children grew, and there was no doubt that Hannah helped Peninnah and her children, while Peninnah constantly provoked and teased Hannah.

You may wonder why I kept Peninnah as a wife if she behaved like that, but she was my wife.  I wasn’t going to behave like the Gentiles and dispose of a wife just because she said things I didn’t like.  But how uncomfortable she made my life!  Yet that was nothing compared to the cruelty with which she treated Hannah.  My life was difficult, but Hannah’s was far worse.

In those days I often found Hannah, the delight of my eyes, weeping because of Peninnah’s actions or words.

All I could do was to wish that I had never married Peninnah.  A happy marriage with no children would have been far better than having children and two wives who could never get along together.

I also need to point out that Hannah never, not even once, tried to turn me against Peninnah.  Hannah knew that I loved her and could have used that love to make Peninnah suffer, but she didn’t.

So when people ask me about the birth of Samuel, I always say that one of the special things about his birth was his mother and her attitude to God.

When we went to Shiloh each year for the feast, I always followed our normal custom and gave special presents to my wives and children, and every year the present I gave Hannah was twice as big as the present I gave Peninnah.  It was meant to show that I loved her, but when I think back, I wonder whether it was a wise thing to do.  It seemed only fair to give her something special when her rival always got presents both for herself and for her children – but maybe it was extra fuel on the fire of Peninnah’s bullying nature.

The trouble was always worst at the feast, and each year it got worse, until Hannah would often weep and not eat.  I couldn’t jolly her out of it either.

One year everything came to a head.  When I returned to our lodgings after making our offering to God, it was obvious that Hannah had been crying.  Peninnah was looking pleased with herself, which left me in no doubt as to what had been happening.

I took Hannah into another room privately and spoke to her, but she was inconsolable.  What is a man to do when his responsibilities cause such conflict?  I felt so sorry for Hannah, but Peninnah was also my wife, for good or ill.  How strongly I felt at that moment that my decision to take a second wife had been foolish, and that the woman I had chosen a very bad choice indeed.

It was time for a meal and Hannah prepared it for us, but she herself was too upset to eat.

“Poor Hannah,” said Peninnah in a sickly sweet voice.  “She’s not feeling well – and no child to give her a cuddle.”

“Stop it,” I snapped, and I’m afraid my voice showed my anger.  Peninnah said no more, merely smiling in a self-satisfied way and putting her arm around our oldest son.

Once the meal was finished, Hannah went by herself to the tabernacle, and what happened there is now deservedly famous.

 

When she returned, I was pleased to see that she was much happier.  She immediately told me what had happened: that she had asked God for a son and that Eli had blessed her request.  But she had also promised that, if God gave her the son she was asking for, she would give him to God for the rest of his life, and that concerned me for a number of reasons, which I’ll try to explain.   You see, I love and worship Yahweh our God, and have great respect for Eli too, but his sons are terrible men.

If God gave us a son and we dedicated him to God by giving him to the priests, what would happen to him?  Eli was already old – if he died, what would happen to a young boy left to the tender care of his evil sons?  And even at the best of times, would the priests want a young boy under their feet anyway?  Dedicating a son to God sounded very nice, but I felt that sometimes we need to be practical.  How wrong I was!  God is much more practical than we are, and when he wants something, he makes it work – very practically.

However, this uncertainty that I felt left me with a difficult decision.  Under Moses’ law, if a wife makes a vow, her husband can annul it if he chooses to, but only if he does so on the day on which he hears about it.[1]  I could tell that Hannah had made this commitment out of desperation and her love of God, and that she was deeply committed to fulfilling it – if God would give her a son.  I could also tell that she was completely convinced that this was exactly what God would do.

This was no careless, unthinking vow, I knew that – but at the same time, I felt that it wasn’t very practical and might even be dangerous, because of Eli’s sons.

What should I decide?

Hannah had prayed a lot about the subject that day, and I decided to do the same.  I also weighed up the pros and cons and tried to think through where each option might lead.  All the while, I could see in my mind’s eye the happy smile that had brightened Hannah’s face when she returned from the tabernacle.

I’m quite certain now that my final decision was the right one, but it wasn’t so simple at the time.  I decided to support Hannah in her vow.  After all, if we had a son, wasn’t that proof that God was answering Hannah’s prayer?  God would choose whether or not he wanted a child given to him.

I also decided to make my own commitment – a vow to match Hannah’s – so the next morning, I went to worship and made a vow of my own, a promise that I would fulfil if God gave us a son.  Then we went home.

Not long afterwards, Hannah became pregnant, and you can imagine how excited we were by God’s answer to prayer.  Peninnah was disappointed, but we didn’t let her attitude affect our joy.  She suggested derisively that the child might be a girl, but of course it wasn’t.

Hannah and I were both completely convinced that our son, Samuel, was given by God.  For some reason, God wanted Samuel dedicated to him in a special way.

Soon after his birth, it was time to go to Shiloh again, and my practical soul was questioning again: would Eli want a 3-week old baby delivered to him to look after?

This time, Hannah had the most sensible suggestion: she was still feeding Samuel, and while that was the case he would need to stay with her.  After that, he would go to Shiloh and be dedicated to God.  I was satisfied with the idea as long as Hannah didn’t get too attached to Samuel and end up unable to give him up.

That year, I went to Shiloh with only Peninnah and her children.  She was much quieter and less aggressive than she had been the previous year.  No longer being the only mother in the family seemed to improve her behaviour.  In fact, Samuel’s birth was the beginning of much greater harmony in our family, and of a permanent improvement in Peninnah’s character.

I paid my vow to God, then reminded Eli of the woman he had seen praying the previous year and told him all about the wonderful gift Yahweh had given us.  I thought it would be best to warn him about what was coming so that he wouldn’t get a shock when we turned up at the feast with Samuel, expecting to dedicate him to God and leave him at the temple.  I got the feeling that Eli was quite happy with the idea of having another chance to bring up children.  By then his own sons were so evil that he had given up on them.  I’m not completely surprised, but it would have been better if he had still tried to bring them under control.

Anyway, he had some ideas of different ways to bring up Samuel and teach him about God.  I had heard lots of people reflecting on how Eli and his wife had brought up their children, and nobody had a single good word to say about either the methods or the results.  The ideas he mentioned to me sounded much more sensible, which eased my worries a little.

After Hannah weaned Samuel, we took him with us to Shiloh, made sacrifices and presented Samuel to Eli.  Such a delightful little toddler he was, quite tall for his age and with a smile just like his mother’s.  He has always looked at one with a straight, steady gaze, and that characteristic was already obvious when he was introduced to Eli.  We had explained to him what was happening, and I felt that he was looking forward to seeing the tabernacle and Eli.  Hannah had done her best to make the changes that were coming in his life as attractive as possible, and she succeeded.  Oh, but it was hard saying goodbye to him when we left to return home to Ramah.  He waved to us, and we waved to him, and then Hannah and I walked away.  His absence left a big hole in our life which nothing could ever fill, but God showed his appreciation for our sacrifice by giving us three more sons and two daughters.

Peninnah died some years ago, and Hannah and I were both sorry.  We have missed her company, something that would have been inconceivable before Samuel was born!

Hannah and I are now contentedly growing old together.  Our sons and daughters are grown and most have children of their own, blessing us with grandchildren and happiness.  Our most famous son is Samuel, but we believe that we would never have had any children if Hannah had not been willing to give him up.

 

Notes

[1] Numbers 30:6-15