The prosperous, “solid citizen” picture of Elkanah is rounded out with the detail that will provide internal emotional dynamics to the plot as it unfolds: There are two wives in Elkanah’s household, and they don’t get along, for the reason that one, Peninnah, has children and the other, Hannah, does not. Hannah’s barren condition is the negative note around which the story forms. And so our attention immediately shifts from the fertility of place and family to Hannah’s bereftness. The barren wife