Song of Hannah

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The Song of Hannah is a poem interrupting the prose text of the Books of Samuel. According to the surrounding narrative, the poem (1 Samuel 2:1-10) was a prayer delivered by Hannah, to give thanks to God for the birth of her son, Samuel.

Contents

[edit] Contents and themes

Hannah praises Yahweh, reflects on the reversals he accomplishes, and looks forward to his king.

Verses 4-5 contains three reversals. Stanley D. Walters notes that one is a "reversal of macho male prowess", one a "reversal of female longing" and one is "gender-neutral and universal".[1]

There is a movement in this song from the particular to the general. It opens with Hannah's own gratitude for a local reversal, and closes with God's defeat of his enemies – a cosmic reversal.[2]

Through the theme of reversal, the Song of Hannah functions as an introduction to the whole book. Keil and Delitzsch argue that Hannah's experience of reversal was a pledge of how God "would also lift up and glorify his whole nation, which was at that time so deeply bowed down and oppressed by its foes."[3]

The reference to a king in verse 10 has provoked considerable discussion. A. F. Kirkpatrick argues that this does not imply a late date for the song, since "the idea of a king was not altogether novel to the Israelite mind" and "amid the prevalent anarchy and growing disintegration of the nation, amid internal corruption and external attack, the desire for a king was probably taking definite shape in the popular mind."[4]

Walter Brueggemann suggests that the Song of Hannah paves the way for a major theme of the Book of Samuel, the "power and willingness of Yahweh to intrude, intervene and invert."[5]

[edit] Identity of persons referred to in the song

[edit] Samuel

According to some contributors to the Classical Rabbinical literature, the first half of the poem was a prophecy, predicting Samuel's later role as a prophet, that her great grandson would be a musician in the Jerusalem Temple, that Sennacherib would destroy the Kingdom of Israel, that Nebuchadrezzar would fall from power, and that the Babylonian Captivity would come to an end [6].

[edit] Saul

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According to some textual scholars,[citation needed] the Song of Hannah actually refers to the birth of Saul, with Samuel's name having been substituted awkwardly for Saul in the preceding narrative; the text is sometimes considered by biblical scholars to be more likely to have originally been a song of praise directed at a king than a prayer referring to the birth of a prophet. Its seemingly non-prayer-like nature was noticed by classical scholars, who believed that Hannah's prayer was silent and unrecorded, and that the Song of Hannah was what was said afterwards [7].

[edit] David

Although the "king" of verse 10 is left unspecified, the blessing to the king and to the anointed forms a clear parallel with 2 Samuel 22, which finishes with Yahweh being a tower of salvation to his king, and showing mercy to his anointed (2 Samuel 22:51).

[edit] Use

In Judaism the song of Hannah is regarded as the prime role model for how to pray, and is read on the first day of Rosh Hashanah as the haftarah. The poem has several features in common with the Magnificat, which was sung in early Christian circles (and continues to be regularly sung or said in many Christian denominations). These common features include the themes, and the order in which they appear; many textual scholars believe that the Magnificat is essentially just a copy of the Song of Hannah, together with part of a previous prayer of Hannah referring to herself as a handmaiden (1 Samuel 11a), which have been paraphrased to be more succinct.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Stanley D. Walters, "The Voice of God's People in Exile," Ex Auditu 10 (1994), 82.
  2. ^ Walters, "The Voice of God's People in Exile," 76.
  3. ^ C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1872), 29.
  4. ^ A. F. Kirkpatrick, The First Book of Samuel (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1911), 55-56.
  5. ^ Walter Brueggemann, First and Second Samuel (Intepretation; Louisville; John Knox, 1990), 21.
  6. ^ Targum Jonathan ben Uzziel
  7. ^ Berakot 31b