Trajectory Table
Hannah (Barren Mother of Promise)
11 stages
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Hannah stands at the center of a canonical pattern: God repeatedly brings the child of promise from an impossible womb. From Sarah to Rebekah to Rachel to Manoah's wife to Hannah to Elizabeth, the covenant line advances not through natural fertility but through divine intervention — a theology of reversal that Hannah's song articulates prophetically (1 Samuel 2:1-10 — the text's own Spirit-given horizon, not a claim about Hannah's foresight) and that Mary directly inherits in the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55) — a reversal-theology Israel itself sang liturgically (Psalm 113) in the centuries between Hannah and Mary. The motif reaches its climax not through a further barren mother but through a categorical shift: Mary is a virgin, not a barren wife. The pattern prepares for the final reversal — the One whom the barren-mother motif was teaching Israel to expect comes through a womb more impossible still. Hannah herself is not a type of Christ. But her song inaugurates the reversal-theology that Mary recapitulates, and the whole motif functions as a canonical thread pointing toward the ultimate Child of Promise.
Related Trajectories: 077 - Isaac (Child of Promise) · 138 - Samuel (Prophet-Priest-Judge) · 103 - Miriam (Prophetess and Worshiper) — sibling trajectories stage the same Sarah→Rebekah→Rachel→Hannah→Elizabeth chain from adjacent angles: TT 077 owns the child of promise (Isaac) arm of the seed line, TT 138 owns Hannah's son (Samuel's prophet-priest-judge career, launched from Hannah's song), and TT 103 stages the women's-song tradition. All share the 1 Samuel 2:1-10 hinge — cross-link rather than duplicate stages. Lane-seating: This table owns the barren-mother motif as a canon-wide Longitudinal Theme with Hannah as the hinge-instance whose song articulates it; it cites-not-annexes its crowded neighbours — TT 139 (Sarah — Mother of Promise) owns Sarah the individual and her Romans-4 "the God who gives life to the dead" faith (the two tables rightly share the Genesis 18:9-15 annunciation FT and its governing question, "Is anything too difficult for the LORD?", 18:14 ↔ Luke 1:37); TT 143 (Seed Promise) / the Seed & Offspring Longitudinal Theme owns the seed-promise (Gen 3:15 → Gal 3:16) on which this table's Promise-Fulfillment rail rides; and the Davidic / "anointed"-line tables own the development of Hannah's first-royal מָשִׁיחַ (1 Sam 2:10 → 2 Sam 7:12 → the messianic King), which this table hands off rather than annexes.
How this connects — Method
Longitudinal Theme (primary) — the barren-mother motif is a canonical thread from Genesis to Luke that develops a theology of divine reversal: covenant children come by God's power, not by natural ability. Hannah's song (1 Samuel 2:1-10) is the hinge text that articulates this motif as cosmic reversal ("the barren woman gives birth to seven," "He raises the poor from the dust"), and the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55) directly inherits its structure, affections, and theology (an analogous song rather than a shared-vocabulary citation — even the opening verbs differ: Hannah "exults," Mary "magnifies"). Also Analogy — Hannah's situation before God (the faithful, humbled, prayerful woman who receives an unexpected child and responds with a song of reversal) is the pattern of response that Mary embodies; the analogy holds specifically through Christ, who is the substance of Hannah's prophetic horizon ("His anointed," 1 Samuel 2:10) and the child Mary bears. Also Promise-Fulfillment — the seed-promise narrative (Genesis 3:15; 12:3; 17:19; 2 Samuel 7:12) advances through each impossible womb, with each barren-mother episode a renewed divine commitment to produce the covenant seed against natural impossibility; the promise culminates in the virgin birth of the ultimate Seed. Also Redemptive-Historical Progression — the covenant line's epochal advance through impossible wombs is itself the narrative arc the motif rides: patriarchs, judges, the monarchy's threshold, exile's restoration hope, and the Incarnation (harmonizing with the same chain as staged in TT 077 and TT 138). Typology is not claimed as the primary lens: Hannah is not a type of Christ (she is analogous to Mary); the barren-mother motif is not a "type" with a single antitype but a developing canonical theme; and the move from barren wombs to virginal conception is a reversal-escalation (a categorical break) rather than the clean analogical escalation typology requires.
IMotif Inaugurated — SarahMotif Inaugurated
Texts
30But Sarai was barren; she had no children.
9"Where is your wife Sarah?" they asked. "There, in the tent," he replied. 10Then the LORD said, "I will surely return to you at this time next year, and your wife Sarah will have a son!" Now Sarah was behind him, listening at the entrance to the tent. 11And Abraham and Sarah were already old and well along in years; Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. 12So she laughed to herself, saying, "After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?" 13And the LORD asked Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh and say, 'Can I really bear a child when I am old?' 14Is anything too difficult for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you—in about a year—and Sarah will have a son."
1Now the LORD attended to Sarah as He had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what He had promised. 2So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised. 3And Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore to him. 4When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God had commanded him. 5Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. 6Then Sarah said, “God has made me laugh, and everyone who hears of this will laugh with me.” 7She added, “Who would have told Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”
Canonical Intertextuality Pairs1
- Genesis 21:1 to Genesis 11:30 Supporting - Supporting / thematic: Sarah's conception opens the barren-mother motif, establishing the pattern for all subsequent barren mothers. The two verses share no distinctive Hebrew collocation (21:1 does not use ʿāqār; the verbal echo is 21:1 ← 18:10, 14), so it is kept as a motif node, not a CRITICAL verbal citation.
Foundation Texts2
IIMotif Continues — Rebekah (Answered Prayer)Motif Continues
Texts
21Later, Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren. And the LORD heard his prayer, and his wife Rebekah conceived.
Foundation Texts1
IIIMotif Continues — Rachel (God Remembered)Motif Continues
Texts
22Then God remembered Rachel. He listened to her and opened her womb, 23and she conceived and gave birth to a son. “God has taken away my shame,” she said. 24She named him Joseph, and said, “May the LORD add to me another son.”
Foundation Texts1
IVMotif Continues — Manoah's Wife (Barren Mother of Deliverer)Motif Continues
Texts
2Now there was a man from Zorah named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, whose wife was barren and had no children. 3The angel of the LORD appeared to the woman and said to her, “It is true that you are barren and have no children; but you will conceive and give birth to a son. 4Now please be careful not to drink wine or strong drink, and not to eat anything unclean. 5For behold, you will conceive and give birth to a son. And no razor shall come over his head, because the boy will be a Nazirite to God from the womb, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hand of the Philistines.”
Foundation Texts1
VMotif Climaxes — Hannah's PrayerMotif Climaxes
Texts
10In her bitter distress, Hannah prayed to the LORD and wept with many tears. 11And she made a vow, pleading, "O LORD of Hosts, if only You will look upon the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, not forgetting Your maidservant but giving her a son, then I will dedicate him to the LORD all the days of his life, and no razor shall ever come over his head." 12As Hannah kept on praying before the LORD, Eli watched her mouth. 13Hannah was praying in her heart, and though her lips were moving, her voice could not be heard. So Eli thought she was drunk 14and said to her, "How long will you be drunk? Put away your wine!" 15"No, my lord," Hannah replied. "I am a woman oppressed in spirit. I have not had any wine or strong drink, but I have poured out my soul before the LORD. 16Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; for all this time I have been praying out of the depth of my anguish and grief." 17"Go in peace," Eli replied, "and may the God of Israel grant the petition you have asked of Him." 18"May your maidservant find favor with you," said Hannah. Then she went on her way, and she began eating again, and her face was no longer downcast. 19The next morning Elkanah and Hannah got up early to bow in worship before the LORD, and then returned home to Ramah. And Elkanah had relations with his wife Hannah, and the LORD remembered her. 20So in the course of time, Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying, "Because I have asked for him from the LORD."
Foundation Texts1
VIMotif Articulated — Hannah's Song (Reversal-Theology Inaugurated)Motif Articulated
Texts
1At that time Hannah prayed: “My heart rejoices in the LORD in whom my horn is exalted. My mouth speaks boldly against my enemies, for I rejoice in Your salvation. 2There is no one holy like the LORD. Indeed, there is no one besides You! And there is no Rock like our God. 3Do not boast so proudly, or let arrogance come from your mouth, for the LORD is a God who knows, and by Him actions are weighed. 4The bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble are equipped with strength. 5The well-fed hire themselves out for food, but the starving hunger no more. The barren woman gives birth to seven, but she who has many sons pines away. 6The LORD brings death and gives life; He brings down to Sheol and raises up. 7The LORD sends poverty and wealth; He humbles and He exalts. 8He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap. He seats them among princes and bestows on them a throne of honor. For the foundations of the earth are the LORD’s, and upon them He has set the world. 9He guards the steps of His faithful ones, but the wicked perish in darkness; for by his own strength shall no man prevail. 10Those who oppose the LORD will be shattered. He will thunder from heaven against them. The LORD will judge the ends of the earth and will give power to His king. He will exalt the horn of His anointed.”
Canonical Intertextuality Pairs1
- 1 Samuel 2:5 to Genesis 29:31 Supporting - Supporting / thematic: Hannah's song ("the barren woman gives birth to seven") stands in the matriarchal motif and extends it to cosmic reversal, sharing the motif's head-word ʿāqār ("barren") rather than a distinctive collocation, so it is kept as a motif node, not a CRITICAL verbal citation.
Foundation Texts1
VIIMotif Sung — Israel's Liturgy of ReversalMotif Sung
Texts
4The LORD is exalted over all the nations, His glory above the heavens. 5Who is like the LORD our God, the One enthroned on high? 6He humbles Himself to behold the heavens and the earth. 7He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the dump 8to seat them with nobles, with the princes of His people. 9He settles the barren woman in her home as a joyful mother to her children. Hallelujah!
Foundation Texts1
VIIIMotif Re-Applied — Barren ZionMotif Re-Applied
Texts
1“Shout for joy, O barren woman, who bears no children; break forth in song and cry aloud, you who have never travailed; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband,” says the LORD.
Foundation Texts1
IXMotif Revived — ElizabethMotif Revived
Texts
7But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well along in years. 36Look, even Elizabeth your relative has conceived a son in her old age, and she who was called barren is in her sixth month. 37For no word from God will ever fail.”
Foundation Texts1
XMotif Fulfilled — Magnificat and Virgin ConceptionMotif Fulfilled
Texts
46Then Mary said: “My soul magnifies the Lord, 47and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior! 48For He has looked with favor on the humble state of His servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed. 49For the Mighty One has done great things for me. Holy is His name. 50His mercy extends to those who fear Him, from generation to generation. 51He has performed mighty deeds with His arm; He has scattered those who are proud in the thoughts of their hearts. 52He has brought down rulers from their thrones, but has exalted the humble. 53He has filled the hungry with good things, but has sent the rich away empty. 54He has helped His servant Israel, remembering to be merciful, 55as He promised to our fathers, to Abraham and his descendants forever.”
Canonical Intertextuality Pairs1
- Luke 1:46-55 to 1 Samuel 2:1-10 CRITICAL - CRITICAL: Mary's Magnificat re-performs Hannah's song; the structural and thematic parallels place her pregnancy within the barren-mother tradition.
Foundation Texts1
XIMotif Extended — Children of the Barren One (Already/Not Yet)Motif Extended
Texts
21Tell me, you who want to be under the law, do you not understand what the law says? 22For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. 23His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born through the promise. 24These things serve as illustrations, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children into slavery: This is Hagar. 25Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present-day Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. 26But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 27For it is written: "Rejoice, O barren woman, who bears no children; break forth and cry aloud, you who have never travailed; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband." 28Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29At that time, however, the son born by the flesh persecuted the son born by the Spirit. It is the same now. 30But what does the Scripture say? "Expel the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman's son." 31Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.
Canonical Intertextuality Pairs1
- Galatians 4:27 to Isaiah 54:1 CRITICAL - CRITICAL: Paul quotes Isaiah's barren woman prophecy to show that the church (children of promise, like Isaac) are "children of the barren one"—the new covenant community born from what seemed dead.
Foundation Texts1
Four-Step Application
Step 1 - What You Must Do (The Demand): Hannah's song and Mary's Magnificat both confront you with what God actually requires of His people: you must side with God's reversal. That is — you must stand among the lowly, the hungry, and the powerless who hope in God's strength rather than their own, and you must trust Him to exalt the humble and bring down the proud (1 Samuel 2:3-8; Luke 1:51-53). The demand is not that you produce spiritual fruit or prove your worth; the demand is that you see yourself rightly before God — as one who needs God to act, not as one who can make your own future.
Step 2 - Why You Can't Do It (The Problem): You cannot side with God's reversal on your own, because you are not naturally among the humble — you are naturally among the proud. Your default posture is to secure yourself by your own strength, your own fertility, your own competence, your own record. Even your attempts at spiritual humility become achievements you measure. Like Peninnah mocking Hannah, you look sideways at those who seem to have more, and you either envy them or despise them. You cannot pray Hannah's prayer or sing Mary's song while still trusting your own arm. And the moment you try to manufacture the humility the text calls for, you prove you haven't understood it — because manufactured humility is just another way of exalting yourself.
Step 3 - How Christ Did It (The Solution): Christ is the Child that every barren-mother episode was preparing Israel to receive — the "anointed" of Hannah's song (1 Sam 2:10), the "horn of salvation" of Zechariah's song (Luke 1:69), the One whom Mary bears not from barrenness but from virginity. And Christ Himself embodied the reversal the motif promised. He was conceived through the Spirit's overshadowing (Luke 1:35) — pure gift, not natural inheritance. He was born to the lowly, not the mighty. He identified with the poor, the hungry, the excluded — the very people Hannah's song exalts. He resisted every temptation to secure Himself by His own strength, humbled Himself to death on a cross (Philippians 2:8), and was therefore exalted by God to the highest place (Philippians 2:9). The Magnificat's "He has brought down rulers from their thrones, but has exalted the humble" is most deeply fulfilled in Christ's own cross and resurrection: the lowest place became the basis of the highest exaltation. He did what you could not — He was genuinely humble, genuinely dependent on the Father, genuinely among the poor — and in His death and rising He broke the grip of proud self-securing on His people.
Step 4 - How Through Him You Can (The Transformation): Because Christ is the child of the ultimate reversal, you are united to Him by faith — and that changes your stance in the world. You no longer need to secure yourself by fertility, competence, status, or spiritual record, because you are "in Christ" and the Father has already said of you what He said of His Son. That gospel security is what frees you to actually take the lowly place Hannah and Mary occupy. You can pray like Hannah — pouring out your heart in desperate dependence — without needing the prayer to be heard in order for you to be loved, because you already are loved. You can sing like Mary — "He has regarded the lowly estate of His servant" — because in Christ your lowliness has already been regarded. You can wait in seasons that feel barren, because God's pattern is to bring His greatest works through impossible situations — and you wait as part of a family still being gathered, the children of the barren one not yet complete until the bride-city descends (Galatians 4:26-27; Revelation 21:2). You can stop measuring yourself against Peninnahs, because your identity is not in out-producing rivals. And you can become, in actual behaviour, the kind of person who sides with God's reversal — who does not despise the poor, who does not envy the mighty, who stands with the hungry because Christ stood with them first. This is not your achievement. It is the overflow of belonging to the Child whom the barren-mother motif was always pointing toward.
Telos — beholding unto becoming (2 Corinthians 3:18). Guard the one exit this reversal-theology can relapse into: not "shine harder" but the subtler "make yourself lowly — side with the poor, stop trusting your own arm." Step 2 has already nailed that exit shut — manufactured humility is just another way of exalting yourself; you cannot produce the required lowliness by resolve, for the attempt is the very pride the text exposes. So the significance must not terminate in a better grade of self-lowering, but in beholding. The God who fills the empty womb and raises the poor from the dust (1 Sam 2:6-8; Ps 113:7-9) is the God we behold "with unveiled faces" in the face of His Anointed — Hannah's מְשִׁיחוֹ (1 Sam 2:10) arriving as Mary's Son — and by that sight "are being transformed into His image with intensifying glory" (2 Cor 3:18). The empty-handed do not climb down into lowliness to earn exaltation; they gaze at the God who has already regarded their low estate in His Anointed, and are changed. Sight unto savoring: God most glorified in the once-barren heart most satisfied in the grace that raises it from the dust.
Across the whole trajectory
Wider canonical web
- Luke 1:48 to 1 Samuel 2:1 - Mary's "lowly estate of His servant" echoes Hannah's self-designation ("look upon the affliction of Your maidservant," 1 Samuel 1:11) and her song's rejoicing — the Magnificat's opening posture inherited directly from Hannah.
Lexicon Findings
The barren-mother trajectory is a longitudinal theme whose continuity is visible at the lexical level — the same cluster of Hebrew terms recurs across every stage, passes through the LXX, and is picked up by Luke in sustained structural allusion to Hannah's song. First, the Hebrew term עָקָר (ʿāqār, H6135) meaning "barren/sterile" (Genesis 11:30; 25:21; 1 Samuel 2:5 [1 Samuel 1:5-6 says instead that the LORD "had closed her womb"]; Judges 13:2-3) is consistently rendered in the LXX as στεῖρα (steíra, G4723), which Luke adopts exactly to describe Elizabeth (Luke 1:7, 36). Second, the divine action of "remembering" barren women — זָכַר (zākar, H2142) applied to Rachel (Genesis 30:22) and Hannah (1 Samuel 1:11, 19) — is translated in the LXX as μιμνῄσκομαι (mimnḗskomai, G3403), the same root (root-level continuity, not a citation) that stands behind the Magnificat's "He has helped His servant Israel, remembering to be merciful" (Luke 1:54). Third, the reversal-and-exaltation motif that Hannah's song coins is re-performed by Mary — on one demonstrable shared exaltation-verb, not a "magnify" word. Hannah's song does not open with gādal: it opens with עָלַץ (ʿālaṣ, H5970, "my heart exults") and crests with רוּם (rûm, H7311, "my horn is exalted," 1 Sam 2:1) — while גָּדַל / μεγαλύνω appears in 1 Samuel 2 only downstream, at v. 21 (and the cognate adjective at v. 26), of the boy Samuel who "grew," never in the mother's praise (2:1-10). The genuine shared lexical joint of the two songs is therefore רוּם (rûm, H7311) → ὑψόω (hypsóō, G5312): Hannah's "my horn is exalted" and "He lifts the needy" (1 Sam 2:1, 7-8) stand behind Mary's "He has exalted the humble" (Luke 1:52). Mary's own opening verb μεγαλύνει ("My soul magnifies the Lord," Luke 1:46) is her psalmic act of making God great — her native LXX praise-idiom (cf. Ps 34:3 LXX / Ps 33:4, where גָּדַל is rendered μεγαλύνω), the affectional heart of the canticle — not a rendering of any word in Hannah's song. The Magnificat re-performs Hannah's song by shared reversal-structure, affection, and the named seed-promise ("as He promised to our fathers, to Abraham and his descendants forever," Luke 1:54-55), not by a "magnify" vocabulary. The trajectory's prophetic horizon is locked in by Hannah's use of מָשִׁיחַ (māšîaḥ, H4899, "anointed one") in 1 Samuel 2:10 (the first royal-messianic use in the Former Prophets, rendered χριστός in the LXX), which sets the messianic target that Mary's song reaches.
Key Lexical Threads:
- Hebrew: עָקָר (ʿāqār) - appears in Genesis 11:30; 25:21; 1 Samuel 2:5 [1 Samuel 1:5-6 says instead that the LORD "had closed her womb"]; Judges 13:2-3
- Hebrew: עֲקֶרֶת הַבַּיִת (ʿăqereth habbayith) - "the barren woman of the house," Psalm 113:9 — the motif's liturgical crystallization in the Hallel
- LXX: στεῖρα (steíra) - standard translation for barrenness throughout LXX
- NT: στεῖρα (steíra) - direct continuation in Luke 1:7, 36 (Elizabeth)
- Hebrew: זָכַר (zākar) - divine remembering in Genesis 30:22; 1 Samuel 1:11, 19
- LXX: μιμνῄσκομαι (mimnḗskomai) - LXX rendering of "remember"
- NOTE (not a shared thread): גָּדַל (gādal) / μεγαλύνω (megalýnō) does not link Hannah's song to the Magnificat — in 1 Samuel 2 it stands only of the boy Samuel who "grew" (v. 21; the cognate adjective at v. 26), not in Hannah's praise (2:1-10). Mary's μεγαλύνει (Luke 1:46) is her own LXX-psalmic praise-idiom (cf. Ps 34:3). The genuine shared exaltation-verb of the two songs is רוּם / ὑψόω (below).
- Hebrew: רוּם (rûm) - exalt/raise in 1 Samuel 2:1, 7-8
- LXX/NT: ὑψόω (hypsóō) - exalt the humble in Luke 1:52
- Hebrew: מָשִׁיחַ (māšîaḥ) - first royal use of "anointed" in 1 Samuel 2:10 (earlier Pentateuchal uses are priestly, e.g., Leviticus 4:3)
- LXX: χριστός (christós) - Septuagint rendering, directly applied to Jesus
Lexicon References:
- H6135 - עָקָר (ʿāqār) - barren, sterile
- H2142 - זָכַר (zākar) - remember, recall
- H7358 - רֶחֶם (reḥem) - womb, matrix
- H7311 - רוּם (rûm) - raise, lift up, exalt
- H4899 - מָשִׁיחַ (māšîaḥ) - anointed, Messiah
- G4723 - στεῖρα (steíra) - barren, sterile
- G3403 - μιμνῄσκω (mimnḗskō) - remember, recall
- G3388 - μήτρα (mḗtra) - womb
- G3170 - μεγαλύνω (megalýnō) - magnify, extol
- G5312 - ὑψόω (hypsóō) - exalt, lift up
All Foundation Texts
Detailed exegetical analyses of each key passage in this trajectory, including Hebrew/Greek key terms, canonical connections, and Christological development.
- Genesis 18:9-15 — (cross-referenced from TT 139 — that FT already treats this trajectory's exact angle) — The annunciation to Sarah; "Is anything too difficult for the LORD?" (18:14) is the trajectory's governing question, echoed at Jeremiah 32:17, 27 and near-cited at Luke 1:37 LXX.
- Genesis 21:1-7 — Sarah, the first barren mother of the covenant line, finally conceives at age ninety.
- Genesis 25:21 — The barren mother pattern continues in the second generation.
- Genesis 30:22-24 — Rachel's barrenness was particularly painful—she watched her sister Leah bear child after child while her own womb remained closed.
- Judges 13:2-5 — Israel is in the hand of the Philistines.
- 1 Samuel 1:10-20 — Hannah, childless and provoked by her rival Peninnah, pours out her soul before the LORD at Shiloh.
- 1 Samuel 2:1-10 — Hannah's song transcends her personal situation to prophesy cosmic reversal and the coming King.
- Psalm 113:4-9 — Israel's liturgical canonization of Hannah's reversal-theology: Psalm 113:7-8 nearly quotes 1 Samuel 2:8, climaxing in the barren woman made a joyful mother (113:9); the Hallel setting feeds the Lukan canticles.
- Isaiah 54:1 — Following the Suffering Servant's atoning work (Isaiah 53), Zion is called to rejoice.
- Luke 1:46-55 — Mary visits Elizabeth; the baby John leaps in Elizabeth's womb; Elizabeth pronounces blessing; Mary responds with the Magnificat.
- Luke 1:7-37 — Zechariah and Elizabeth are old and childless—"Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well along in years" (1:7).
- Galatians 4:21-31 — Paul cites Isaiah 54:1 to locate the church as children of the barren/free woman, born according to the Spirit like Isaac; already (the Jerusalem above is our mother) / not yet (Revelation 21:2).