The Other Wife

Elkanah lived in the hill country of Ephraim, in the town from which his household would set out for Shiloh. His family is named before the trouble in his house is told: his father was Jeroham, and before Jeroham came Elihu, Tohu, and Zuph. Then the account names his two wives, Hannah and Peninnah. And Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none.

That difference stands at the beginning of their story, before either woman speaks. Peninnah had sons and daughters who would receive their portions when the family gathered for the sacrifice. Hannah appears beside them as the other wife, loved by the same husband, with no children of her own. Both women belonged to the household that made the journey.

Year after year Elkanah would go up from his city to worship and sacrifice to the LORD of Hosts at Shiloh. Eli’s sons, Hophni and Phinehas, served there as priests. The journey returned with the year, taking Elkanah and his family from their own town to the house of the LORD. There he presented his sacrifice, and there he distributed the portions.

He gave portions to Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters. To Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her. The account places that love beside the statement that the LORD had closed her womb. Elkanah’s affection was real, and Hannah still had no child.

The double portion made his love visible at the meal. But there was another thing happening whenever Hannah came to Shiloh, something his generosity did not bring to an end. Peninnah provoked her and taunted her because she had no children. The account calls Peninnah her rival, and describes the taunting as vicious.

It gives none of Peninnah’s words. It names what she used against Hannah, and it tells what happened afterward: Hannah wept and would not eat. The portions had been given, including the larger one her husband had chosen for her. She could not bring herself to eat it.

This happened year after year. The annual journey brought the family back to worship, and it brought Hannah back into the same grief. Whenever she went up to the house of the LORD, Peninnah taunted her. What might be told as a single difficult meal had happened often enough to become the pattern of their visits.

Elkanah saw her tears and her untouched food. “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?”

He began with what he could see and came at last to himself. He loved her; he had given her more than the others. Now he asked whether his place in her life could be greater than the place of ten sons. The question remained before the woman who had none.

No answer from Hannah is recorded. Peninnah’s taunts have reached her, and now her husband’s questions have reached her, but her own words have not yet been heard. The meal at Shiloh has brought her grief into view again. Elkanah has asked what his love can be to her, and Hannah has given him no reply.