WebThe birth and dedication of Samuel. While Hannah is identified as the preferred of Elkanahs two wives, the account repeats three times that she has no children, a major source of shame for women in biblical Israel.20 This characterization also identifies the accounts first dramatic tension: that between Elkanahs preferred but barren wife and her co-wife Peninnah, who had given Elkanah multiple sons and daughters. Wherefore it came to pass, when the time was come about after Hannah had conceived, that she bare a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him of the Lord. It also serves the broader narrative as the renewal of an ancient and sacred covenant with God, with Samuel serving as its object and agent.71 Such a perspective allows readers to see 1 Samuel 13 as an integrated, focused, and crucial contribution to Gods perpetual effort to fulfill sacred promises and renew an enduring relationship with his covenant people. PTSD symptoms can include: Frequent nightmares. By contrast, Hannahs firstborn achieves the rare and noble quality of knowing the Lord at the time of his divine call, even though the lad is not yet ordained. Structuring Devices: Conjunctions. Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt: This stage takes place between the ages of 18 months and 3 years and did I give unto the house of thy father all the offerings made by fire of the children of Israel? She is merely the barren co-wife of an obscure Ephraimite. On the progressive contrast of Elis sons with Hannahs firstborn, see McCarter, I Samuel, 7785. I thank Steven Walker, Richard Dilworth Rust, Rex Cooper, and Fred Woods for their helpful comments on prior drafts of this article. Now Hannah, she spake in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard: therefore Eli thought she had been drunken. And Samuel told him every whit, and hid nothing from him. continuing to nurture her firstborn throughout his youth, even though she sees him but once a year (2:1819). And the child did minister unto the Lord before Eli the priest. 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. P. Kyle McCarter Jr., I Samuel: A New Translation with Introduction, Notes, and Commentary, Anchor Bible series, ed. to recover the authors intentions and to set them up as governing all interpretationsuffers from the logical fallacy of the excluded middle. PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) is one of the most severe mental health issues from parental neglect or abuse during childhood. 2829; 54n; 60 nn. Strong, Exhaustive Concordance, 1228. And Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou didst call me. Information about Samuel is contained in The First Book of Samuel (called in the Roman Catholic canon The First Book of Kings). He spent his adolescence across the country, removed from all hed known as a child, raised by a stepfather who he felt no connection to. Samuel is a miracle child. International Standard Version The LORD took note of Hannah, and she became pregnant and gave birth to three sons and two daughters. Type Scene: Victory Song. Omissions? The first seven verses of the introduction consist of what Alter calls narrativedescriptive details that locate the story within the broader temporal, spatial, social, and spiritual context of biblical Israel. Thus, the ambivalent and matter-of-fact introduction of the priests at Shiloh implies that while central to the story of Samuels beginnings, Eli and his sons will play roles that are marginal to or destructive of their high ritual status. Characterization: Messengers of God. Divine remembrance of the despondent barren woman by virtue of her prayer and vow is a classic example, not only of the Lords power over nature, society, and history, but also of His justice. Simon, Prophetic Narratives, 33. On the occasion of their final interaction, Eli blesses Samuels parentsthe Lord give thee seed of this woman for the loan which is lent to the Lordusing the same verbs, nathan (give) and shael (lend), which define Hannahs initial offering of Samuel to the Lord. Samuel Gompers (January 27, 1850 December 13, 1924) was a key American labor union leader who founded the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and served as its president for nearly four decades, from 1886 to 1894, and from 1895 until his death in 1924. See Robert Alter, Ancient Israel: The Former Prophets: Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings, A Translation with Commentary (New York: W.W. Norton, 2013), 257; Robert Polzin, Samuel and the Deuteronomist: A Literary Study of the Deuteronomic History, Part Two: 1Samuel (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993), 1954; Uriel Simon, Reading Prophetic Narratives, trans. On the complementarity of individuals physical traits and spiritual qualities in the Hebrew Bible, see Alter, Moses, xixxxiii. This issue carries significant economic, psychological, and social costs for the families affected. Lenn J. Schramm (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997), 5172. David Pellauer (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998), xi. The two major divergences in The First Book of Samuel lie in those passages that critics call the pro-monarchic source (1 Samuel 9:110:16) and those passages called the antimonarchic source (1 Samuel 8 and 10:1727). Commenting on Elis deficiencies, McCarter, I Samuel, 100, observes, It is time for the apprentice to replace the master. 3. Customary Behavior: Eating/Drinking and Fasting. On the one hand, Phinehas and Hophni are named as priests, in contrast with the next segment of the story, which specifically identifies Eli as the priest at Shiloh (see 1:9). In this account Samuel is a figure known through all Israel (a term of uncertain meaning at this period); his authority rests on his position as judge. The present study illustrates the extent to which the authors, editors, and redactors of 1Samuel13 employed in a systematic and complementary manner a variety of literary conventions for a central ideological endshowing Gods commitment to preserve his ancient covenant with Israel, even at inopportune times and through obscure persons. Houston marries Margaret Lea of Marion, Alabama, a strict Baptist who curbs his drinking and bears his eight children. The patriarchal focus of the introduction is really a Hebrew convention that gives the larger account of Samuel a measure of cultural legitimacy.18. 63. Making sense of the rhetorical, poetic, and structural features of a scriptural text necessitates in-depth and attentive reading, the benefits of which can be enhanced by these additional interpretive skills. Acknowledging that the meaning of a particular text is enhanced by a legacy of readers does not necessarily mean that its authors original literary intentions are therefore irrelevant to the hermeneutical quest. To this end, the following phrases from the song comment on key personalities, events, and circumstances of the larger story of which it is a part.47, Mine horn is exalted in the Lord (2:1). One of many studies of this genre in the Hebrew Bible is Steven Weitzman, Song and Story in Biblical Narrative: The History of a Literary Convention in Ancient Israel (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997); see also Alter, Moses, 397 n.1. 69. And they rose up in the morning early, and worshipped before the Lord, and returned, and came to their house to Ramah: and Elkanah knew Hannah his wife; and the Lord remembered her. He was to warn them to repent and believe in the Savior. Samuel was very probably intruded into this narrative. Structuring Devices: Play of Perspectives. Prior sections of the Samuel story are devoted to contents that are primarily narrative or primarily dialogue. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill. 2. 11. This usage introduces another meaningful connotation of the verb, shakab, in relation to yada (know). And the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli. And the child Samuel grew before the Lord. There is none holy as the Lord: for there is none beside thee: neither is there any rock like our God. He reappeared, however, to announce the oracle of Yahweh rejecting Saul as king, once for arrogating to himself the right of sacrifice (chapter 13) and a second time for failing to carry out the law of the bana primitive institution by which persons or objects were devoted to the deity, normally by destructionagainst the Amalekites (chapter 15). The rate of decline averaged 4% from 2016 to 2021 and jumped to 8% in 2022. Meanwhile, the boy Samuel continued to grow, and the LORD was constantly with him. 6. On Nov. 30, 1835, the small town of Florida, Mo. put away thy wine from thee. See Alter, Art, 6387. And the man of thine, whom I shall cut not off from mine altar, shall be to consume thine eyes, and to grieve thine heart: and all the increase of thine house shall die in the flower of their age. See McCarter, ISamuel, 72 n.5; see also Alter, Moses, 269 n.27; 307 n.5. And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore. I accept the claim and will incorporate this additional sentence into this analysis, as appropriate. Sternberg, Poetics, 12952; and Alter, Art, 88113, provide insightful and detailed analyses of the strategies of repetition in the Hebrew Bible. And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Customary Behavior: Eating, Drinking, and Fasting. 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. To keep readers focused on the storys central purpose, the narrator adds a bit of narrative commentary on Samuels faithful service before and after each vignette (2:11b, 18, 21b, 26). . In general, I agree with Alter: The story of Samuel, then, far from being a simple promotion of prophetic ideology, enormously complicates the notion of prophecy by concretely imagining what may become of the imperfect stuff of humanity when the mantle of prophecy is cast over it. Ancient Prophets, 230. Alter, Ancient Israel, 247 n.0 suggests that Hannahs song and Davids victory psalm echo each other and act as formal bookends to the extended narrative sequence that includes the stories of Samuel, Saul, and David., 51. And he said, What is the thing that the Lord hath said unto thee? These analogies and contrasts enrich and deepen the rhetorical possibilities and sharpen and intensify the meaning that can be extracted from each individual account and from all of them taken together.. Message. On the use of exposition as a literary convention, see Meir Sternberg, Expositional Modes and Temporal Ordering in Fiction (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978). . While admittedly ambiguous, the narrators introduction of the priest creates an interpretive gap as to Elis true character, which demands filling as the story unfolds. Theodore J. Lewis, Belial, in Freedman, Anchor Bible Dictionary, 1:65456; Bible Dictionary, LDS edition of the Bible (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1979), s.v. The king is chosen not by divine election but by lot, implying that no special qualities were required, and the bashful candidate has to be summoned from a hiding place. And this man went up out of his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice unto the Lord of hosts in Shiloh. for I hear of your evil dealings by all this people. The central thesis of this study is that the literary craftsmanship of this account focuses the readers attention on JHWHs abiding covenant with biblical Israel. Chapters 13 of 1 Samuel1 describe the miraculous origins and auspicious upbringing of the first major Hebrew prophet since Joshua, who by all measures lived centuries before Samuel.2 The biblical account of Samuels beginnings forecasts the exceptional ministry of the man who served as Israels last complete sovereign. And he said unto them, Why do ye such things? Samson is one of the most recognizable of the judges who ruled over Israel before the time of the kings. Also before they burnt the fat, the priests servant came, and said to the man that sacrificed, Give flesh to roast for the priest; for he will not have sodden flesh of thee, but raw. Hannah bears and nurtures Samuel, after which she lends him to God and continues to bless him, without any expectation of divine recompense. Alter, Ancient Israel, 244 n.21: Everything is different now that Hannah has borne a son, and she herself introduces a change in the repeated pattern.. 5. However, Sternberg, Poetics, 32528, eloquently qualifies Alters perspective. But Samuel ministered before the Lord, being a child, girded with a linen ephod. Our differences are complementary, not contrastive in nature. And the priests custom with the people was, that, when any man offered sacrifice, the priests servant came, while the flesh was in seething, with a flesh-hook of three teeth in his hand; And he struck it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; all that the fleshhook brought up the priest took for himself. The reiterated and, then, plays an important role in creating the rhythm of the story, in phonetically punctuating the forward driving movement of the prose. 20. Also like the first, Elkanahs second speech at once reinforces his traditional familial roles and acknowledges his emotional distance from his wife. And I will raise me up a faithful priest, that shall do according to that which is in mine heart and in my mind: and I will build him a sure house; and he shall walk before mine anointed for ever. Certain words appear in the text in complementary or contrastive parallel throughout the Hebrew Bible in order to comment on the broader interpretive significance of the narrative. Customary Behavior: Hearing and Seeing. As a result of the priests blessing, Hannah bears additional childrenthree sons and two daughters., Customary Behavior: Hearing and Seeing. The same examination reveals that none of the material in its present form was contemporary with the events; if one source is taken as controlling, then the other materials lose all historical value. And he worshipped the Lord there. Shakab implies that Samuel is simply lying prone in bed when the Lord first calls and eventually appears to him. Genesis 16:5; 18:915; 21:15; 25:21; 29:31. The text never has him interact directly with any of Hannahs children, and he speaks with Hannah only when her devotional actions disrupt his traditional ritual routine. 70. When Hannah presents herself to Eli as a barren woman who has finally given birth because the Lord answered her prayer, she not only thanks the Lord for His favor to her, she also bears public witness to His mighty deeds, of which she has personal experience. Simon, Prophetic Narratives, 28. Hannah makes a solemn vow to God, and God and Hannah repeatedly and mutually fulfill the terms of their covenant. Alter, Moses, 96 n. 32, suggests the verb shakab approximates the meaning of rape when used in the context of sexual relations. Hence, references in this article to an author (singular) of the text are for heuristic, not documentary or analytical purposes. 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