Discovery Box1 Samuel 2:5 
Context2:5 Those who are well-fed hire themselves out to earn food,
but the hungry no longer lack.
Even 1 the barren woman gives birth to seven, 2
but the one with many children withers away. 3
1 Samuel 2:21
Context2:21 So the Lord graciously attended to Hannah, and she was able to conceive and gave birth to three sons and two daughters. The boy Samuel grew up at the Lord’s sanctuary. 4
1 Samuel 4:20
Context4:20 As she was dying, the women who were there with her said, “Don’t be afraid! You have given birth to a son!” But she did not reply or pay any attention. 5
1 tc Against BHS but with the MT, the preposition (עַד, ’ad) should be taken with what follows rather than with what precedes. For this sense of the preposition see Job 25:5.
2 sn The number seven is used here in an ideal sense. Elsewhere in the OT having seven children is evidence of fertility as a result of God’s blessing on the family. See, for example, Jer 15:9, Ruth 4:15.
3 tn Or “languishes.”
4 tn Heb “with the
5 tn Heb “and she did not set her heart.”
