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First and Second Samuel is unavailable, but you can change that!

The power of story as God’s Word to the community of faith is never more clear than in the books of Samuel. Emotion, drama, complexity of character, and mystery fill the pages of these two biblical books. Eugene Peterson’s commentary emphasizes the resonance and interplay between these stories of kings and prophets and the social and cultural issues that concern us today.

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
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