Elkanah and His Wives
Elkanah is introduced as a man from Ephraim who goes yearly to Shiloh to worship, and his household is marked at once by Hannah's childlessness beside Peninnah's children.
N1ow there was a man named Elkanah who was from Ramathaim-zophim in the hill country of Ephraim. He was the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. 2He had two wives, one named Hannah and the other Peninnah. And Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none. 3Year after year Elkanah would go up from his city to worship and sacrifice to the LORD of Hosts at Shiloh, where Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests to the LORD.
At the sacrificial meal, Elkanah honors Hannah with special care, yet Peninnah's provocation keeps reopening her grief until she weeps and refuses food, and Elkanah can only ask why his love is not enough.
4And whenever the day came for Elkanah to present his sacrifice, he would give portions to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters. 5But to Hannah he would give a double portion, for he loved her even though the LORD had closed her womb. 6Because the LORD had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival would provoke her viciously to taunt her. 7And 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?”