'And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore.
'1 Samuel 1:10.

Great prayers are begotten of great sorrow. Hannah was a broken-hearted woman. Her grief was in her own home.

She was childless, her husband Elkanah had taken a second wife who bore him sons and daughters. Moses law allowed this.

Many things are lawful that are not the best thing to do, and those who took advantage of the concession paid dearly for the privilege.

No house is big enough to hold two women who are wives of the same man. It would be as reasonable to expect two cats to agree over one mouse. Elkanah's folly wrecked his home.

Peninnah was a woman with a jealous heart and a cruel tongue. Hannah was a good woman, but she was still a woman. Her rival knew the sore place in her heart, and she 'provoked her sore to make her fret'.

There is no grief like domestic grief, no wound like the wounds of disappointed love, and the stricken woman wept and did not eat.

Her husband was kind and generous, but generosity cannot heal the pain of a wronged heart. His very efforts to sweeten her lot only embittered her, so long as her rival was there to taunt her.