Source Text: 1 Samuel 2:5
Target Text(s):
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Echo
Connection Method(s): Longitudinal Theme
Significance: Hannah's song in 1 Samuel 2:5 declares that "the barren woman gives birth to seven" (עֲקָרָה יָלְדָה שִׁבְעָה, aqarah yaldah shiv'ah), echoing the theme established in Genesis 29:31 where "the LORD saw that Leah was unloved, so He opened her womb, but Rachel was barren" (עֲקָרָה, aqarah). Both texts demonstrate God's sovereign reversal of barrenness and His pattern of favoring the overlooked. Hannah, like Rachel, experienced the disgrace of barrenness before divine intervention; her song generalizes her personal experience into a theological principle: YHWH reverses human hierarchies, exalting the lowly and humbling the proud. This pattern of the barren woman bearing children becomes a canonical motif pointing to God's grace operating through human impossibility.