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First Samuel is a national autobiography of the Hebrew people. David Jobling reads 1 Samuel as a story that is complete in itself, although it is part of a much larger narrative. He examines it as a historical document in a double sense: firstly, as a document originating from ancient Israel, and, secondly, as a telling of the past. Organizing the text through the three interlocking themes of...

text has often missed the narrator’s enthusiasm, but it is clear to me that he makes Hannah a bold, determined, and even dominating character. Even more, by presenting her as one of Israel’s poets and singers he puts her in the company of Miriam and Deborah, women who also sang triumph-songs and were leaders in Israel (Exodus 15, Judges 5)—as if her dedication of Samuel were an act of leadership on a par with the defeat of the Canaanites or even with the crossing of the Sea! One way of expressing
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