Hannah's Joy

Hannah’s Prayer


Hannah’s prayer becomes the model for Mary’s song of praise in Luke 1.46–55. The themes of the reversal of human fortunes and God’s exaltation of the lowly are prominent here. Another possible heading that is slightly more specific is “Hannah thanks the Lord”
In contrast to the prayer that came from her bitterness (1:10), Hannah prayed from joy in these verses. The prominent idea in Hannah’s prayer is that the Lord is a righteous judge. He had brought down the proud (Peninnah) and exalted the humble (Hannah). The prayer has four sections: 1) Hannah prays to the Lord for His salvation (vv. 1, 2); 2) Hannah warned the proud of the Lord’s humbling (vv. 3–8d); 3) Hannah affirmed the Lord’s faithful care for His saints (vv. 8e–9b); 4) Hannah petitioned the Lord to judge the world and to prosper His anointed king (vv. 10d-e). This prayer has a number of striking verbal similarities with David’s song of 2 Sam. 22:2–51: “horn” (2:1; 22:3), “rock” (2:2; 22:2, 3), salvation/deliverance (2:1, 2; 22:2, 3), grave/Sheol (2:6; 22:6), “thunder” (2:10; 22:14), “king” (2:10; 22:51), and “anointed” (2:10; 22:51).

And Hannah prayed and said,
My heart exults in the Lord;
​ my strength​ (horn KJV) is exalted in the Lord.
My mouth derides my enemies,
because ​I rejoice in your salvation.


2:1. Hannah, with clear reference to her rival Peninnah, spoke of her joy in the Lord who had helped her achieve satisfaction at last. Horns, used by animals for defense and attack, symbolized strength. Thus Hannah spoke of her horn in describing the strength that had come to her because God had answered her prayer.

Mine horn is exalted in the Lord—Allusion is here made to a peculiarity in the dress of Eastern women about Lebanon, which seems to have obtained anciently among the Israelite women, that of wearing a tin or silver horn on the forehead, on which their veil is suspended. Wives, who have no children, wear it projecting in an oblique direction, while those who become mothers forthwith raise it a few inches higher, inclining towards the perpendicular, and by this slight but observable change in their headdress, make known, wherever they go, the maternal character which they now bear.

The words heart, strength (literally “horn”) and mouth are figures of speech where these parts of Hannah represent the whole person. The heart is the seat of the emotion of joy expressed by the mouth. The “horn” represents her vitality or strength.


My mouth derides my enemies is literally “my mouth is open wide over my enemies.” The image of a mouth open wide is an expression of contempt (see Psa 35.21; Isa 57.4). The use of the body part (mouth) performing the action as the subject of the sentence is quite normal in Hebrew, but it may be awkward if translated literally into other languages. As in my heart above, it is often much more natural to use the first person singular pronoun instead. Various expressions capture the meaning in English. “I gloat over my enemies” “I can laugh at my enemies”.
The image of a mouth wide open may also express the idea of “swallowing up” (see Psa 69.15; Isa 5.14).

The tradition of the Jews is that when Hannah bore one child Peninnah buried two.

2 ​“There is none holy like the Lord;
there is none besides you;
there is ​no rock like our God.

God is said to be a “holy God” in 6.20. The translation of the word holy is particularly difficult in some languages. It is used throughout the Old Testament to qualify more than fifty different nouns. In most cases the primary component of meaning is “set apart from ordinary use” or “dedicated to God.” The idea of moral purity is a secondary component in some contexts. When God is said to be holy, the focus is on the separateness, the absolute difference, and the remoteness of God from all that is part of normal human experience (see Psa 113.4–6).


3 Talk no more so very proudly,
let not arrogance come from your mouth;
for the Lord is a God of knowledge,
and by him actions are weighed.

proudly … arrogance. The majestic and powerful God humbles all those who vaunt themselves against Him. The idea of God’s humbling of the very proud is shown throughout 1, 2 Samuel, toward Peninnah, Eli’s sons, the Philistines, Goliath, Saul, Nabal, Absalom, Shimei, Sheba, and even David.


4 The bows of the mighty are broken,
but the feeble bind on strength.

“Bows of the heroes” stands for heroes carrying bows. For this reason the verb is to be taken in the sense of confounded, not broken, especially as, apart from Isa. 51:56, חָתַת is not used to denote the breaking of outward things, but the breaking of men.

The feeble. the word used here is related to “stumbling” (mft), “faltering” (njps), or “tottering” (nab, njb). cev translates “everyone who stumbles.” But the word also has connotations of weakness, which causes people to stumble.

Seven contrasts are found in these 4 verses: 1) mighty and weak; 2) full and hungry; 3) barren and fertile; 4) dead and alive; 5) sick and well; 6) poor and rich; and 7) humbled and exalted.

5 Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread,
but those who were hungry have ceased to hunger.
The barren has borne seven,
​but she who has many children is forlorn.

...has borne seven. This is not a personal testimony since Hannah bore only 6 children (2:21). “Seven” here is a general reference to women whom God blesses.

6 The Lord kills and brings to life;
he brings down to Sheol and raises up.
7 ​The Lord makes poor and makes rich;
he brings low and he exalts.

Brings low is the opposite of exalts. The vocabulary used here is very similar to certain New Testament passages (Matt 23.12; Luke 14.11). But the difference is that here it is stated clearly that it is the Lord who does both the humbling and the exalting.
The verb exalts may be translated in some languages as “causes to be respected” or “causes people to honor.”

8 ​He raises up the poor from the dust;
he lifts the needy from the ash heap
​to make them sit with princes
and inherit a seat of honor.
​For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s,
and on them he has set the world.


The pillars of the earth. the Israelites, like other people in the ancient world, believed that the earth was flat and was supported by pillars (see 2 Sam 22.16; Job 9.6; Psa 75.3). Since the words pillars and earth are connected by the preposition “of” in English, the relationship between the two words may be ambiguous. In view of the beliefs of the people of the Old Testament, it is reasonable to translate “The Lord is the owner of the foundations on which the world sits” or, as cev has translated the last two lines together, “You set the world on foundations and they belong to you.” Regarding the words on them he has set the world, compare also Psa 24.1–2.

9 ​“He will guard the feet of his faithful ones,
but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness,
for not by might shall a man prevail.

He will guard the feet. the future tense in rsv may be misleading if translated literally. This is not something that Yahweh will do at some future time. Rather it is his habitual behavior. njb rightly translates “He safeguards the steps of his faithful.” The word feet is here an example of a figure of speech called synecdoche, in which a part is substituted for the whole.

He will keep the feet of his saints. There are a people in the world that are God’s saints, his select and sanctified ones; and he will keep their feet, that is, all that belongs to them shall be under his protection, down to their very feet, the lowest part of the body. If he will keep their feet, much more their head and hearts. Or he will keep their feet, that is, he will secure the ground they stand on, and establish their goings; he will set a guard of grace upon their affections and actions, that their feet may neither wander out of the way nor stumble in the way. When their feet are ready to slip (Ps. 73:2) his mercy holdeth them up (Ps. 94:18) and keepeth them from falling, Jude 24. While we keep God’s ways he will keep our feet. See Ps. 37:23, 24.

10 The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces;
​against them he will thunder in heaven.
The Lord will judge the ends of the earth;
he will give strength to his king
​and exalt the power​ of his anointed.”



10. the Lord shall judge the ends of the earth … exalt the horn of his anointed—This is the first place in Scripture where the word “anointed,” or Messiah, occurs; and as there was no king in Israel at the time, it seems the best interpretation to refer it to Christ. There is, indeed, a remarkable resemblance between the song of Hannah and that of Mary (Lu 1:46).



Praise is our rent, our tribute. We are unjust if we do not pay it. The mercy she had received was an answer to prayer, and therefore she thought herself especially obliged to give thanks for it. What we win by prayer we may wear with comfort, and must wear with praise.