1 Samuel 2:5

_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._ They that were full have hired out themselves for bread х_ SªBEE`IYM_ (H7649)] - satisfied, having abundance. THEY THAT WERE HUNGRY CEASED - i:e., to hunger. THE BARREN HATH BORN SEVEN - i:e., many children....

1-10 Hannah's heart rejoiced, not in Samuel, but in the Lord. She looks beyond the gift, and praises the Giver. She rejoiced in the salvation of the Lord, and in expectation of His coming, who is the whole salvation of his people. The strong are soon weakened, and the weak are soon strengthened, when God pleases. Are we poor? God made us poor, which is a good reason why we should be content, and make up our minds to our condition. Are we rich? God made us rich, which is a good reason why we should be thankful, and serve him cheerfully, and do good with the abundance he gives us. He respects not man's wisdom or fancied excellences, but chooses those whom the world accounts foolish, teaching them to feel their guilt, and to value his free and precious salvation. This prophecy looks to the kingdom of Christ, that kingdom of grace, of which Hannah speaks, after having spoken largely of the...

Verse 1 Samuel 2:5. THEY THAT WERE _FULL_] All the things mentioned in these verses frequently happen in the course of the Divine providence; and indeed it is the particular providence of God that Hannah seems more especially to celebrate through the whole of this simple yet sublime ode....

See an instance in 1 Samuel 2:36. See, too, in Ezekiel 13:19, another example of hire paid in bread. CEASED - i. e. were at rest, did no work. The general sense is expressed by the translation of the Latin Version, “they were filled.”...

EXPOSITION HANNAH'S SONG OF PRAISE (1 Samuel 2:1). 1 SAMUEL 2:1 AND HANNAH PRAYED AND SAID. Like the Magnificat, Hannah's hymn of thanksgiving begins with the temporal mercies accorded to herself, but rises immediately into the realms of prophecy, foretelling Christ's kingdom and the triumphs of the Church. From this prophetic element, common more or less to all the hymns of the Bible, most of them have been used in Christian worship, and still merit a place in it, though we in the liturgy of the Church of England now use only two, taken both from the New Testament. In 1 Samuel 2:1, in four strophes of

THEY THAT ARE FULL HAVE HIRED OUT THEMSELVES FOR BREAD,.... Such as have been full of the good things of this life have been stripped of all, and reduced to such circumstances as to be obliged to hire themselves out to persons to labour under them for their bread. Hannah has either respect to some instances she had known, or prophesies of what would be hereafter, and was fulfilled in the Israelites, when in the hands of the Egyptians and Assyrians, Lamentations 4:6 and may be exemplified in the case of the prodigal son, Luke 15:13 and is true of such who have larger gifts, but not grace, and which they exercise for lucre sake, and are mere hirelings; and of self-righteous persons who are full of themselves, of their goodness and righteousness, purity, and power; are quite mercenary do all they do for gain

2. HANNAH'S PROPHETIC SONG CHAPTER 2:1 - 10 _ 1. The praise of Jehovah-God (1 Samuel 2:1)_ 2. Jehovah's power and grace in deliverance (1 Samuel 2:4) 3. The prophetic outlook (1 Samuel 2:9) Hannah's heart filled with the Holy Spirit overflows with a marvellous utterance. Higher criticism claims “that this beautiful sacred lyric could not have been sung by Hannah in the circumstances as described. The words of verse 5 alone approach her situation, and doubtless led to the insertion of the psalm in its present context.” They also say “that the Virgin's song (Luke 1:46) is largely modeled on the song of Hannah”

SONG OF HANNAH. This poem is quite unsuited to Hannah's circumstances; its theology is too advanced for primitive times (1 Samuel 2:2; 1 Samuel 2:6; 1 Samuel 2:8), and the reference to the king (1 Samuel 2:10) either implies an actual king and indicates the period of the Monarchy, or is Messianic, _i.e._ connected with the hope of an ideal king, and implies a post-exilic date. The natural occasion of the poem would be a victory which delivered Israel from distress and danger. The ascription to Hannah is due to 1 Samuel 2:5_ b_, the barren hath borne seven.

CHILDREN. sons....

1 Samuel 2:1-11. The Song of Hannah Hannah's song is a true prophecy. She is inspired "to discern in her own individual experience the universal laws of the divine economy, and to recognise its significance for the whole course of the Kingdom of God." The deliverance from her proud adversary which had just been vouchsafed to her was but one instance of the great principles of Jehovah's moral government of the world, principles which receive their fullest illustration in the exaltation of the Lord's Christ through humiliation to victory, and which will only he fully realised when "the kingdoms of this world shall have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ." Hence it is that her own peculiar circumstances are so soon lost sight of in the wider view of the dealings of God's Providence. The failure to recognise this has led critics to deny the authenticity of the song, and to c