1 Sam 2:1 “My heart has rejoiced in the Lord; my horn is exalted in the Lord; my mouth is enlarged over my enemies, because I have rejoiced in Your salvation."
The subject matter of this Canticle is the ordering of human actions and affairs, not according to human reasoning, but according to the reasons of divine providence and power. This is the theme treated at length in this Canticle. The occasional cause of the same Canticle, however, is the beneficent divine providence shown to Hannah herself, in granting her fertility and children, and by this means humbling the exaltation of Peninnah, who reproached Hannah because God had closed her womb.
From this occasion, therefore, she begins the Canticle, manifesting both the joy of her own heart in God and her own exaltation in God—for she is exalted in her generative power. For the Hebrews were accustomed to call power a “horn.” She also manifests the enlargement of her own mouth to speak against her enemies, that is, Peninnah; for before she wept and was silent, but once the child was born she had matter for speaking with a full mouth.
And she gives the reason for all three: “Because I have rejoiced in Your salvation.” For she calls the gift of a child a “salvation” granted to her by God; for by this she was saved from the evil of sterility, with joy not only in offspring, but in a firstborn male.
1 Sam 2:2 “There is no one holy like the Lord, for there is none besides You, and there is no strong one like our God".
From the manifested disposition concerning herself, she ascends to the praise of God—both with respect to holiness, and with respect to deity, and with respect to power. For thus strength is mentioned in the text, because the second praise is brought forward as the reason for the first. But according to the proper order, the first place is owed to this: first, that the Lord (YHWH) is unique—for He alone is such that by no reasoning can there be another like Him. And from this it follows that He is holy like YHWH—that is, there is none pure like the source of being itself, since He alone is pure act, unmixed with any potentiality. All other things have something of impurity insofar as they possess some admixture of potentiality.
Thirdly, that “there is no strong one like our God” clearly pertains to the strength of power, which is evidently seen to follow from the first two.
1 Sam 2:3 “Do not multiply lofty speech, glorying."
It matters little that in Hebrew it reads: “You shall not multiply; you shall speak loftiness, loftiness.” These words fit both matters. For men multiply words of their own loftiness. Peninnah multiplied words of her own loftiness year by year, and the sons of this world have multiplied and still multiply words of their own loftiness; and, as is added, of their own strength in loftinesses and strengths. The repeated negation is understood: “Do not multiply; do not speak.”
“Let the old things depart.” Although this can be read otherwise, it fits the context better to read: “Let strength go out of your mouth,” so that, as she reproves them for speech of their own loftiness, she also reproves them for speech of their own strength. For these two—loftiness and strength, that is, power—are commonly the material of boasting.
The reason is given: “For the Lord is a God of knowledge.” In Hebrew it reads: “For El of knowledges is YHWH.” The reason why boasting of both kinds must be avoided is that the source of being is the God of knowledges—that is, supremely powerful to direct and to accomplish all things that can be known; or, He is the God of knowledges because by His own power He surpasses all knowledges.
And the discourse is about practical knowledges, that is, about the reasons for things to be done. This removes human boasting both of one’s own loftiness and of one’s own strength. Hence it is added: “And to Him actions are prepared.” According to the Hebrew, it reads: “And actions were not directed.” Although the Hebrews say that it can also be read “and actions were directed,” nevertheless the first reading is Hebrew, while the second is supported by I know not what rule.
The sense of the second reading is not foreign to the intention: to say that the directing of actions is reserved to God, because since He alone is the God of knowledges, directed actions—that is, actions fulfilled according to the direction of the intending agent—belong properly to Him. This is said in contrast to men, who direct many things according to their own intention, which turn out far otherwise.
The first reading, however, sounds the defect of human actions in that their works do not come to pass according to the direction of their preceding reasons. And you, prudent reader, can easily see that both readings resolve into the same meaning.
The reason, therefore, for avoiding human boasting is strengthened both from this—that God is the God of knowledges—and from this—that the direction of works is not fulfilled according to human reasoning.
1 Sam 2:4 “The bows of the mighty are broken, and the weak are girded with strength."
According to Hebrew custom, she begins from the end. This last point is declared in a threefold manner. First, with regard to works of bodily strength, saying: “The bows of the mighty are broken, and those who stumbled are girded with strength.” Consider in these that the outcome did not follow human reasoning, but rather the contrary: for according to human reasoning, the breaking of bows does not correspond to the works of the strong, nor does strength correspond to those who stumble.
1 Sam 2:5 “Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, and the hungry have ceased."
Likewise consider the works pertaining to sustenance. For secondly, with regard to works related to provision, those who were full or satiated with riches do not, according to human reasoning, have such a miserable outcome that they hire themselves out for bread; and similarly, the poor and hungry do not, according to human reasoning, have such a prosperous outcome that they cease from labor. For where the Vulgate has “are filled,” the Hebrew truth has “have ceased,” namely, ceased from labor and gain.
“Until the barren has borne seven, and she who had many children has become feeble.” According to the Hebrew it reads: “Until the barren has borne seven, and she who was rich in sons has been cut off.”
And the sense is that human works are not directed, not only in works of strength, and in the outcomes of wealth and poverty, but that this extends even to the works of the vegetative part—that is, to generation itself—inasmuch as the barren woman bore seven, and she who abounded in children was cut off. For according to reason, the generation of seven children does not correspond to barrenness; and likewise, to be deprived of children does not correspond to one rich in offspring.
Whether Hannah said this last point with reference to herself and her rival, or in a general sense, the text itself seems to show that she spoke generally, as she did in the two preceding cases. For it is clear that she introduces the barren woman who bore seven, and it is evident that Hannah herself did not bear seven children, but five or at most six, as later passages testify. Again, Scripture does not say that Peninnah was deprived of children, nor that she ceased from bearing others. Therefore, these three statements are to be understood generally, just as those which follow.
1 Sam 2:6 “The Lord kills and gives life."
Having treated the last, she now treats the first point—namely, that the Lord is the God of knowledges. She treats it by showing that God brings about contraries: not only contraries among themselves, such as death and life, riches and poverty, and other such things, but also that He brings these about contrary to the disposition of things. One disposed to live He puts to death, and conversely one disposed to death He brings to life; and similarly He makes the poor rich and the rich poor, and so with the rest.
From these things it is directly made manifest that God alone is the God of knowledges, since by the disposition of His providence all contraries come to be.
“He brings down to Sheol and brings back up.” According to the Hebrew it reads: “He makes one descend into the pit and makes him ascend.” Because the verb is in the past tense—“He made ascend”—it signifies by the name pit not hell nor the grave, but a prison. For from the beginning of the world until the time of Hannah, no one had ascended from hell, nor had anyone risen from the dead; but God had made many free and innocent persons descend into prison, and had made many bound persons ascend from there.
1 Sam 2:7-8“The Lord makes poor and makes rich; He humbles and He exalts. He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the dunghill, to make them sit with princes and inherit a throne of glory."
“For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s.” It matters little that in Hebrew it reads “the strengths” or “powers of the earth,” for the interpreters placed “pillars” metaphorically. And this is given as the reason for the irreproachable nature of the divine disposition concerning human affairs. For since all the powers of the earth belong to God Himself, and upon them He has placed the habitable parts of the world—which the interpreters call the orb—no one can rightly complain. For the Lord of all uses His own right in distributing as He wills; therefore the divine disposition concerning the world is irreproachable.
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