1 Samuel 1:8

8 “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?”

1 Samuel 1:8 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 1:8

Then said Elkanah her husband to her, Hannah, why weepest
thou?
&c.] Since it was a time of rejoicing, as every festival was, especially at the ingathering of the fruits of the earth:

and why eatest thou not?
since they were at a feast, and she had the best part and portion of the provision:

and why is thy heart grieved?
to such a degree that she could neither eat nor drink:

am not I better to thee than ten sons?
which, as Jarchi says, Peninnah had borne to him; his meaning is, that the share she had in his love and affections ought to have been esteemed by her more than if she had ten or many children by him; and it suggests that Peninnah would have been glad to have such a share in his affections as Hannah had; and it would have been more eligible to her, than to have borne him so many children as she had.

1 Samuel 1:8 In-Context

6 Because the LORD had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival would provoke her viciously to taunt her.

7 And this went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the LORD, her rival taunted her until she wept and would not eat.

8 “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?”

9 So after they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on a chair by the doorpost of the temple of the LORD.

10 In her bitter distress, Hannah prayed to the LORD and wept with many tears.