Elkanah told them: "We are going to the house of the Lord at
Shiloh, for thence come forth the law. Why should you not join
us?" Such gentle, persuasive words did not fail of taking effect. In
the first year five households undertook the pilgrimage, the next
year ten, and so on until the whole town followed his example.
Elkanah chose a new route every year. Thus he touched at many
towns, and their inhabitants were led to do a pious deed. (5)

In spite of his God-fearing ways, Elkanah's domestic life was not
perfectly happy. He had been married ten years, and his union with
Hannah had not been blessed with offspring. (6) The love he bore
his wife compensated him for his childlessness, but Hannah herself
insisted upon his taking a second wife. Peninnah embraced every
opportunity of vexing Hannah. In the morning her derisive greeting
to Hannah would be: "Dost thou not mean to rise and wash thy
children, and send them to school?" (7) Such jeers were to keep
Hannah mindful of her childlessness. Perhaps Peninnah's
intentions were laudable: she may have wanted to bring Hannah to
the point of praying to God for children. (8) However it may have
been forced from her, Hannah's petition for a son was fervent and
devout. She entreats God: "Lord of the world! Hast Thou created
aught in vain? Our eyes Thou hast destined for sight, our ears for
hearing, our mouth for speech, our nose to smell therewith, our
hands for work. Didst Thou not create these breasts above my
heart to give suck to a babe? (9) O grant me a son, that he may
draw nourishment therefrom. Lord, Thou reignest over all beings,
the mortal and the heavenly beings. The heavenly beings neither
eat nor drink, they do not propagate themselves, nor do they die,
but they live forever. Mortal man eats, drinks, propagates his kind
and dies. If, now, I am of the heavenly beings, let me live forever.