1 Samuel - Odessa, Missouri Community of Christ

8 Dr. Constable's Notes on 1 Samuel 2007 EditionA. THE CHANGE FROM BARRENNESS TO FERTILITY 1:1—2:10In the first subsection (1:1—2:10) we have the joyful story of Samuel's miraculous birthand his mother's gratitude to God for reversing her barrenness and making her fertile. Thesignificance of this story is not only that it gives us the record of how Samuel was bornand that his mother was a godly woman. It also shows how God, in faithfulness to Hispromise to bless those who put Him first (Deut. 28), did so even for a despised woman inIsrael (cf. Rahab and Ruth). He brought blessing to all Israel because of her faith.1. Hannah's deliverance ch. 1"I Samuel 1 is presented as a conventional birth narrative which movesfrom barrenness to birth. Laid over that plot is a second rhetorical strategywhich moves from complaint to thanksgiving. With the use of this secondstrategy, the birth narrative is transposed and becomes an intentionalbeginning point for the larger Samuel-Saul-David narrative. Hannah'sstory begins in utter helplessness (silence); it anticipates Israel's royalnarrative which also begins in helplessness. As Hannah moves to voice(2,1-10), so Israel's narrative moves to power in the historical process.Both Hannah's future and Israel's future begin in weakness and need, andmove toward power and well-being. The narrative of I Samuel 1 functionsto introduce the theological theme of 'cry-thanks' which appears in thelarger narrative in terms of Israelite precariousness and Yahweh'spowerful providence. Our chapter corresponds canonically to II Samuel 24which portrays David in the end (like Hannah) as a needy, trustingsuppliant. The two chapters, witnesses to vulnerable faith, together bracketIsrael's larger story of power." 15The problem 1:1-2Samuel's parents lived near Ramathaim-zophim (lit. two heights, elsewhere calledRamah, e.g., v. 19, lit. height) in Ephraim in central Canaan. 16 Samuel's father, Elkanah,was an Ephraimite by residence. He was really a Levite by blood (1 Chron. 6:33-38).Ramah was not one of the Levitical towns in Ephraim. Elkanah's residence raises initialquestions about his commitment to the Mosaic Law. Was he really where he should havebeen, and does this indicate that the will of God may not have been very important forhim? In the story that follows it is Hannah (lit. grace) rather than Elkanah who emergesas the person of outstanding faith.In the Hebrew Bible the description of Samuel's father and Samson's father are almostidentical (cf. Judg. 13:2). The Holy Spirit may have written this to remind us of theunusual Nazirite status of both judges.15 Walter Brueggemann, "I Samuel 1: A Sense of a Beginning," Zeitschrift für die AlttestamentlicheWissenschaft 102:1 (1990):48.16 There was also a Ramah in the territory of Benjamin farther to the south (Judg. 19:13; et al.), and one inNaphtali to the north (Judg. 19:29, 36).