Wife of Elkanah, mother of the prophet Samuel (1 Samuel 1-2). Her story opens the book of 1 Samuel and effectively opens the entire monarchical era of Israel, because Samuel — the son she gave to the LORD — would anoint both Saul and David. Hebrew Channah means "grace, favor." Hannah was barren for years, provoked bitterly by Elkanah's second wife Peninnah. She prayed silently in the tabernacle at Shiloh in such anguish that the old priest Eli thought she was drunk; when he learned the truth, he blessed her prayer. The LORD remembered her, and she conceived and bore Samuel — whose name means "God has heard."
Hannah kept her vow. She had prayed, "If you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life" (1 Samuel 1:11). When Samuel was weaned — probably around age three — she brought him to Shiloh and gave him up. Her prayer of thanksgiving in 1 Samuel 2:1-10 is one of the great poems of the OT and the direct model for Mary's Magnificat a thousand years later. Themes: (1) God exalts the humble and humbles the proud — "the bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble bind on strength"; (2) God raises the poor from the dust — "he seats them with princes and inherits a seat of honor"; (3) God will judge the earth through His anointed king — the first reference to the coming Messiah in Israel's monarchy literature. Hannah's story teaches that God hears prayers offered in anguish; that barrenness in Scripture is often the womb from which redemptive history is born; and that those willing to give back what God has given are often given the most. She had five more children after Samuel (1 Samuel 2:21) — the childless woman becoming a mother of many, a foreshadowing of Isaiah 54:1 and the Church.