Hannah bears and nurtures Samuel, after which she lends him to God and continues to bless him, without any expectation of divine recompense. As part of her poignant vow, Hannah promises that if the Lord will give her a man child, then she will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life. In both instances, the verb give is translated from the Hebrew nathan. and why is thy heart grieved? Structuring Devices: Play of Perspectives. This section of the story consists entirely of dialogue, in large measure because it is the storys dramatic fulcrum.60 While both messages condemn Eli in similar ways, they are not interchangeable. 5. The institution of the monarchy and the election of the king occur according to the will of Yahweh as revealed to Samuel. In fact, it places her within a small but crucial cadre of womenmost notably Rebekah, Tamar, and Ruthwhose own unprecedented spiritual initiatives eventually and distinctively transform biblical Israel.24 Traditional readers of the Samuel story would have recognized the intended craftsmanship of the text for this exceptional interpretive purpose. 9. Recurrent literary conventions that form the interpretive fabric of this account include parallelism,9 characterization,10 key words (Leitwrter),11 type scenes,12 patterns of customary behavior,13 and structuring devices like Sternbergs play of perspective.14 The dynamic and complementary interplay of these conventions throughout the text increases the drama, engagement, meaning, and pleasure of the reading experience. Therefore, while intended as an expression of generosity, the offering reveals Elkanahs insensitivity, at the very least, to the storys central crisis and may actually be insulting to Hannah. While both messengers faithfully deliver their respective messages from the Lord, the man of God accomplishes hismission in total anonymity. As with the development of individual characters, so too are human actions carefully crafted in the biblical narrative for ideological purposes. As crafted, Samuels initial prophecy confirms the scathing condemnation of Eli by the man of God and inaugurates Samuels own prophetic ministry. God heard her prayer On the one hand, Hannah can neither eat the worthy portion herself (because she is fasting in bitterness of soul, see 1:10) nor share it with her children (of which she has none, which is precisely the cause of her grief and the central spiritual crisis of the story). Then said Elkanah her husband to her, Hannah, why weepest thou? 15. Risking an overly simplistic introduction of this convention, the present study recognizes two general perspectives in the Hebrew Bible, contrasted by scope. Andre LaCocque and Paul Ricoeur, Thinking Biblically: Exegetical and Hermeneutical Studies, trans. The always busy Keke Palmer has added a new title to her long list of credits, and this one is much more important than all the others. This ostensibly generous offer from a loving husband introduces other dramatic tensions of the story. International Standard Version The LORD took note of Hannah, and she became pregnant and gave birth to three sons and two daughters. Throughout her victory song, no phrase is independent of another: all combine into either couplets or triads, creating a complex and meaningful unity of the whole and distinguishing the song from the surrounding prose narrative.46, Structuring Devices: Narrative Bridge. 60. Inquiring of the oracle would have been a priestly function, and so there is an intimation here of some sort of breakdown in the professional performance of the house of Eli. He died, and his ghost was evoked by a necromancer, or sorceress, at the request of Saul; he then announced a third time the rejection of Saul (chapter 28). Went to the College Harvard Children's Literature Timeline. 993 BC. Attempting to cover his error of judgment, Eli offers a hastily constructed blessing for her to receive her petition, to which she simply responds, Let thine handmaid find grace in thy sight. The text then observes that Hannah went her way, and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad.. So the woman abode, and gave her son suck until she weaned him. See McCarter, ISamuel, 72 n.5; see also Alter, Moses, 269 n.27; 307 n.5. . Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. David E. Green, 15vols. While this general biblical pattern exhibits innumerable complexities, variations, nuances, and ambiguities, its consistency spans centuries of the recorded dealings of JHWH with covenant Israel.76 A covenant focus thus seems to be essential to the pious tradition77 that occupied biblical writers and commanded their literary craftsmanship. WebSaul, along with three of his sons die in a battle with the Philistines. Samuel Langhorne Clemens was welcomed into the world as the sixth child of John Marshall and Jane Lampton Clemens. Name: Mary. 73. Alter, Moses, 96 n. 32, suggests the verb shakab approximates the meaning of rape when used in the context of sexual relations. 20. Flashbacks of the for I hear of your evil dealings by all this people. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. 45. Customary Behavior: Eating/Drinking and Fasting. Samuel was a Lamanite. For example, Alter (Art, 84) and Simon (Prophetic Narratives, 15) offer astute comments on eating and drinking in 1Samuel1. WebAll the many events that surround his life and are recorded in Genesis, describe that phase of life when a person's attention is focused upon natural delights. In stark contrast with Elis general neglect of his sons, in spite of their physical and functional proximity, the narrator specifically mentions Hannahs continued watch care over her first born, in spite of their physical and functional distance.54 Punctuating the vignettes that contrast the faithfulness of Eli and Hannah, the narrator comments on Samuels progressively auspicious service at the temple, reinforcing the intended contrast between old and new priest.55 While not a prerequisite for Samuels ascension, Elis fall serves as a foil for it.56, Leitwrter: give and lend. The exposition also identifies the ritual officials at the temple of the Lord at Shiloh but in a casual, even offhand manner: And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the priests of the Lord, were there. While this simple declarative sentence names the personnel with the greatest spiritual status at Shiloh, its specific language implies two concerns. Reflecting on this complex and somewhat foreign (to modern readers) convention, Sternberg recognizes the challenge: Reading a character becomes a process of discovery, attended by all the biblical hallmarks: progressive reconstruction, tentative closure of discontinuities, frequent and sometimes painful reshaping in the face of the unexpected, and intractable pockets of darkness to the very end. Sternberg, Poetics, 32324. Possible extrinsic reasons for the placement of Hannahs song within the narrative are found in Weitzman, Song, 11415. And Samuel feared to shew Eli the vision. english literature timeline. And all Israel from Dan even to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord. Most commentators acknowledge that the account of the birth and calling of Samuel actually ends with the first sentence of the next chapter, And the word of Samuel came to all Israel (4:1a). Characterization: Father and Sons. (2:110), Parallelism. McCarter, I Samuel, 59 n.3, mentions that both sons names are Egyptian in origin and that Elis lineage traced its right to the priesthood back to Moses. . As conservatives, they must have been torn between the threat to Israel posed by the Philistines and the promise that the new political system, alien to religious and national traditions, offered against this threat. Provo, UT 84602, USA | 2022 Brigham Young University, Birth and Calling of the Prophet Samuel: A Literary Reading of the BiblicalText, The Little Head Stones Became Monuments: Death in the EarlySamoanMission and theCreation of the FagaliiCemetery, Margaret Barkers The Lord Is Onea Response, Response to Margaret Barkers The Lord Is One, An Improvisation on Margaret Barkers The Lord Is One, An Angel or Rather the Savior at the Kirtland Temple Dedication: The Vision of FrederickG.Williams, What Is It about This Place?: Truman Madsen, ReligiousEducation, and theMissionofBYU, Catholic and Mormon: A Theological Conversation, The Mapmakers of New Zion: A CartographicHistory ofMormonism, The Polygamous Wives Writing Club: From the Diaries of MormonPioneerWomen. And the child Samuel grew before the Lord. 1. While fascinating in their own right, the historiography and aesthetics of Hannahs song do not concern the present study; rather, my interest is in the songs extensive use of poetic couplets45 and its interpretive role in the structure of the larger narrative. If they do so, they are strengthened, enlarged, blessed, and sustained. Polzin, Samuel, 19. 3:21), it begins in virtual obscurity, making its outcome all the more miraculous. P. Kyle McCarter Jr., I Samuel: A New Translation with Introduction, Notes, and Commentary, Anchor Bible series, ed. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. While Samuel ministered to the Lord (1 Samuel 2:18). . Contributing to the disjunctive role of genealogies in the biblical narrative, McCarter observes that the opening phrase, translated from the Hebrew as Now there was a certain man, signals the inauguration of an entirely new narrative.17, In addition, while modern readers may interpret the opening phrase as focusing the story on the man Elkanah, the narrative unfolds in such a way that Hannahs husband plays at best a supportive and largely contrasting role in the Samuel story. And he answered, I called not, my son; lie down again. 1. The present study relies on the LDS edition of the King James Translation of the Hebrew Bible. Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto the voice of their father, because the Lord would slay them. From the simplest and most direct perspective, the story of Samuels birth and calling can be best understood in covenant terms. International Standard Version The LORD took note of Hannah, and she became pregnant and gave birth to three sons and two daughters. And she said, O my lord, as thy soul liveth, my lord, Iam the woman that stood by thee here, praying unto the Lord. While it is possible to read the narrative of Samuels birth in other ways, a covenant perspective allows readers to interpret many, perhaps most, of its details from a single, unified point of view, thus revealing great interpretive depth to the text. 1026; 112 nn. See Genesis 30:2224 for a similarly structured sequence of events regarding childbirth. On the other hand, Elkanahs worthy portion offering to Hannah seems to be a principal source of the dramatic tension between Hannah and Peninnah, discussed above, and between Elkanah and Hannah that is expressed in Elkanahs first direct speech, discussed below. Ancient Eli is almost a tragicomic figure. Elkanah has only two direct speeches in the entire story. Alter, Ancient Prophets, 241 n.2; Alter, Art, 8283. 67. Samuel is ever faithful to his consecrated responsibilities at Shiloh and eventually becomes one of Israels greatest spiritual leaders. Thus, Alter observes, There is a series of recurrent narrative episodes attached to the careers of biblical heroes that . Background: Preterm birth continues to be a leading cause of death for children under the age of 5 globally. While this curse represents the single most extended direct speech in 1 Samuel 13, the precise interaction between the man of God and his Master is completely omitted from the story. However, in the Hebrew Bible, lay/lie with does not always connote illicit sexual relations, for example, Genesis 30:16, and know does not always imply legitimate and covenantal sexual relations, for example, Judges 19:25. 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