What does 1 Samuel 1:7 mean?
Family holiday traditions have deep roots. We may look forward to those familiar gatherings or dread them if they evoke unresolved pain and heartache. The text suggests that part of the annual tradition of this sacrifice and feast at Shiloh was for Elkanah to honor his barren first wife Hannah, whom he loved, with a double portion of the meat from the offering (1 Samuel 1:1–5).That tradition was connected to another: Elkanah's second wife, likely in a jealous rage, would persecute Hannah for being unable to have children (1 Samuel 1:6). Though Hannah was being honored by her husband each year, she was also being cruelly tormented by his other wife. This magnified Hannah's grief so deeply that she lost her appetite. She simply wept.
