The Barren Has Borne Seven: A Mother’s Day Meditation

Whenever I think of mothers in the Old Testament, I always think of Hannah, the mother of Samuel. There are many mothers mentioned in the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament, but Hannah has all the characteristics that make her a special mother.

Let me explain why I believe Hannah is the example of a great mother. First, Hannah was a woman who really wanted a baby. Hannah was barren and unable to conceive.

To women, barrenness was a disgrace and it was considered by many Israelites as the harshest punishment with which the Lord could visit a female. Sarah attributed her barrenness to God. She told Abraham, her husband: “The LORD has kept me from having children” (Genesis 16:2). The writer of Samuel wrote that Hannah was barren “because the LORD had closed her womb” (1 Samuel 1:6).

The view that barrenness was a punishment from the Lord may be derived from an erroneous interpretation of biblical statements saying that the blessings from God would exclude barrenness.

For instance, in Exodus 23:25-26 Moses promised the Israelites if they worshiped the Lord then his blessings would be upon them “and none will miscarry or be barren in your land.”

Moses also promised that if the people obeyed God’s commands, his decrees and laws, then “you will be blessed more than any other people; none of your men or women will be childless” (Deuteronomy 7:14).

Hannah was barren, unable to have children, but in her heart she desperately wanted one. There are women who really want to be mothers but cannot. There are women who are mothers by accident and they hate it. There are other women who want to be mothers for convenience: they believe if they have a child then the men in their lives will marry them.

Hannah was different: she wanted a child because she knew that as a woman her very nature desired to feel the feelings of being a mother.

Second, Hannah prayed to God and asked for a son. Hannah’s prayer to God shows two important things about her: it shows that she was a woman of faith. She believed that God could perform a miracle in her life and give her a son. Hannah’s faith is a good example to mothers everywhere because it teaches that mothers should teach their children to have faith in God. Her faith is also significant because every mother should teach her children to love God.

Hannah’s prayer also shows that she was a woman of prayer. The text shows Hanna praying for her child before the child was born and it reveals Hannah’s commitment to pray for her son as long as she lived. This is the reason Samuel was one of the greatest men of faith in Israel. Samuel was a faithful judge, a faithful priest, and a faithful prophet because he had a praying mother.

Third, Hanna was a woman who recognized that she was a steward of a precious gift God gave to her. In her prayer to God Hannah said: “O LORD Almighty, if you will only look upon your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the LORD for all the days of his life” (1 Samuel 1:11).

Hannah asked God to give her a son, but she was willing to give her son back to God. The son God gave to Hannah was a special gift of grace: it was God who formed that child in her womb; it was God who gave life and health to her baby. Hannah was the mother, but that child belonged to God.

So, as a faithful mother, Hannah kept her vow to God. After Samuel was weaned, probably at the age of two or three (1 Samuel 1:22), Hannah fulfilled her promise. When she came to the house of the Lord at Shiloh, she told Eli the priest:

“As surely as you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the LORD. I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the LORD. For his whole life he will be given over to the LORD” (1 Samuel 1:26-27).

There are three interesting statements in Hannah’s story as a mother: Elkanah’s statement about Hannah’s situation, Hannah’s statement about her condition, and the writer’s statement about Hannah’s blessing.

Elkanah’s Statement

When Elkanah, Hannah’s husband, saw how unhappy Hannah was because she was barren, Elkanah would say to her, “Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don’t you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons?” (1 Samuel 1:8).

The answer to Elkanah’s question was never given, but the reader almost can guess the answer.

Elkanah’s effort to try to comfort his wife was in vain. To a childless woman, a husband
really was not “better than ten sons,” because the joy of motherhood is different from that of conjugal happiness, and especially to a woman in Israel who had hoped to be delivered from her barrenness. After all, one could always find a husband but only the Lord could give a son.

Hannah’s Statement

After Hannah was blessed with her deliverance from sorrow and desolation, she sang a song of thanksgiving: “My heart rejoices in the LORD” (1 Samuel 2:1). Hannah’s outburst of joy came as a result of the divine favor she received in answer to her prayer. In her joy Hannah said: “She who was barren has borne seven children” (1 Samuel 2:5).

The expression “the barren has borne seven” expresses the joy that makes a barren woman the
mother of seven because it is the Lord who takes away barrenness: “The Lord settles the barren woman in her home as a happy mother of children” (Psalm 113:9).

Since seven represents completeness and perfection, seven becomes the representation of a perfect number of children, and a mother of seven is the happiest mother in Israel. When Ruth gave Naomi a descendant, the women of Bethlehem expressed Naomi’s joy in terms of seven sons:

“He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age; for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has borne him” (Ruth 4:15-16).

“The barren has borne seven.” Hannah was the happiest mother in Israel.

The Writer’s Statement

Now that “the barren hath borne seven,” Hannah understood that God had performed a miracle and that he could give her more children. Although at present Hannah had only one son and that son was given back to God, she hoped for more children and she was not disappointed.

“And the LORD was gracious to Hannah; she conceived and gave birth to three sons and two daughters” (1 Samuel 2:21).

The story of Hannah is the story of a woman who in her barrenness earnestly prayed to God with the longings of a mother’s heart, asking for a son. The experience of this mother who was bowed down and oppressed by her situation is an inspiring story to mothers everywhere on this Mother’s Day.

Other Posts on Mothers:

The Sons of Rizpah: Reflections on a Mother’s Love

The Mother of Seven

Deborah: A Mother in Israel

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Barrenness, Hannah, Mothers, Mother’s Day, Samuel

The Mother of Seven

“The mother of seven will grow faint and breathe her last. She will die, ashamed and humiliated, while it is still daylight” (Jeremiah 15:9).

In ancient Israel, the symbolism of giving birth to seven children was used as a proverbial expression to describe a woman blessed with children or to refer to a family whose future in Israel was guaranteed because the family name would survive in the memory of the community through the sons. Two classic examples of “mother of seven” appear in the Old Testament.

When Hanna was delivered from her barrenness and gave birth to Samuel, she said: “The barren has borne seven” (1 Samuel 2:5). These words reflect Hannah’s joy in becoming a mother and the awareness that she had conceived a son because of God’s help.

The second example is found in Ruth 4:15. After Ruth married Boaz and gave birth to Obed, the women of Bethlehem paid her the highest compliment by telling Naomi that her daughter-in-law Ruth was better “than seven sons.” This recognition spoke highly of Ruth’s character since being a mother of seven sons was the highest accolade a woman in Israel could receive.

For a woman, to be a mother and to have sons was to be blessed by God. Psalm 113:9 says that the Lord should be praised because “He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children.”

On the other hand, women such as Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, and Samson’s mother were barren and unhappy. These women carried with them the sorrow of being unable to give children to their husbands and the opprobrium of their society for not being blessed by God.

In light of the positive sentiment that the proverbial expression of being a mother of seven carried in Israel, it is significant that Jeremiah used the same imagery to describe the enormous tragedy and the depth of sorrow that would come to Jerusalem as a result of the judgment that God was bringing upon the nation.

During the invasion of Jerusalem, so many husbands would be killed that the widows of Jerusalem would become “more numerous than the sand of the seas.” So many children would die that mothers would receive news that their sons were killed early in battle (Jeremiah 15:8).

According to Jeremiah, when the judgment arrives upon Jerusalem and a mother of seven hears the news of the death of her children, that mother will be filled with anguish, tormented by the terrible deaths of her children. Robbed of her children in the prime of their lives, the woman grows faint, breathes her last, and dies (Hebrew: “breathes out her life”), ashamed and humiliated because she has lost her seven sons (Jeremiah 15:9).

The imagery of a mother of seven losing her children is used to describe the anguish, pain, and sorrow that will fall upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem. The imagery, although painful, is a good illustration of the paroxysms of emotion evoked by the disaster that came upon Judah in 587 BCE.

There is no greater human sorrow than the one which comes to a home when a mother of many children dies in the prime of her life, leaving her children deprived of maternal love. This is the imagery Jeremiah uses to describe the plight of the people of Judah. Jeremiah, anticipating the coming judgment that the Lord will bring upon Judah, uses the imagery of a husband mourning the death of his wife and the mother of his many children.

Mother Jerusalem (2 Samuel 20:19) has lost her children and her judgment is a reversal of the promise God has made to the ancestors. The promise of life that God had made to Abraham, “I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the sand on the seashore,” now becomes the reality of death: “Their widows will be more numerous than the grains of sand on the seashore” (Jeremiah 15:8).

The promise of life once made to Abraham has become an illustration of what will happen to Jerusalem when the destroyer comes. The city that once was full of people will now become like a widow deprived of her children (Lamentations 1:1). The proverbial expression used to describe a woman blessed with God’s favor will now become the symbol of bereavement and death.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Children, Jerusalem, Judgment, Mothers, Widows

The Sons of Rizpah: Reflections on a Mother’s Love

Then Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it on a rock for herself, from the beginning of harvest until rain fell on them from the heavens; she did not allow the birds of the air to come on the bodies by day, or the wild animals by night. (2 Samuel 21:10).

This coming Sunday is Mother’s Day. On that day most churches will be honoring mothers and the contributions they have made to the lives of their children. As part of the celebration, ministers will be talking about biblical mothers. Generally, sermons about biblical mothers use Hannah, Elizabeth, Mary, and a few other notable women as examples of mothers who love their children and set a positive role model for mothers today.

One mother who probably will never be remembered on Mother’s Day is Rizpah. Ask yourself this question: how many sermons about Rizpah have you heard preached from the pulpit? Probably, you have never heard or you have never preached a sermon about the extreme demonstration of love Rizpah displayed on behalf of her sons. Today, I want to honor Rizpah and her love for her children. Here is her story:

During the days of king David there was a severe famine over all the land that lasted three years. The time of the famine is unknown and except for the reference in 2 Samuel 21:1-10, there is no other reference to this famine in the Bible. Not knowing the reason for the famine, David went to inquire of the Lord in order to ascertain the cause of the famine and the reason the Lord was punishing Israel.

The Lord answered David’s prayer and he was told that Saul and his house were guilty of the massacre he had inflicted upon the Gibeonites. Nothing is known about this event and what caused Saul to shed Gibeonite blood. The Gibeonites were part of the original inhabitants of the land. With their tricks, they deceived Joshua and the people of Israel. Their deception led Joshua and Israel to make a covenant with them.

According to 2 Samuel 21:2, Saul, because of his zeal for the honor of Israel and Judah, tried to destroy the Gibeonites. Saul persecuted the Gibeonites and planned to exterminate them so that they would be completely removed from all the territory of Israel (2 Samuel 21:5). It is possible that the Gibeonites had done something wrong and Saul had used the occasion to exterminate them from Israel.

Because of the revelation from God that Saul’s bloodshed caused the famine, David called the Gibeonites together to decide how to repair the wrong done to them. David said to the Gibeonites: “What shall I do for you? And with what shall I make atonement, that you may bless the inheritance of the Lord?” (v. 3).

The Gibeonites refused to take any money from Saul or from his family. They also recognized that they were not allowed to kill anyone in Israel. When David asked again what he could to make amends for the crime committed against them, the Gibeonites answered:

The man who consumed us and planned to destroy us, so that we should have no place in all the territory of Israel, let seven of his sons be handed over to us, and we will impale them before the Lord at Gibeon on the mountain of the LORD” (2 Samuel 21:5-6).

To save Israel from the famine, David agreed to their request. In making his selection, David spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, because of the promise he had made to Jonathan. In order to select the seven descendants of Saul, David selected Armoni and Mephibosheth, the two sons of Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, Saul’s concubine. David also selected the five sons of Merab, Saul’s daughter and the wife of Adriel, the son of Barzillai the Meholathite.

The Gibeonites took the seven descendants of Saul and impaled them on the mountain before the Lord. The seven were impaled at the beginning of the barley harvest.

There, at the foot of the cross, “Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it on a rock for herself, from the beginning of harvest until rain fell on them from the heavens; she did not allow the birds of the air to come on the bodies by day, or the wild animals by night” (2 Samuel 21:10).

The sackcloth was a type of clothing worn when mourning for the dead. Out of love for her dead sons, Rizpah kept a watch over her dead sons “from the beginning of harvest until rain fell on them from the heavens” (2 Samuel 21:10), that is, from March until October.

Deuteronomy 21:22-23 says that when a person was impaled (or crucified), the body should be removed at the end of the day: “When someone is convicted of a crime punishable by death and is executed, and you hang him on a tree, his corpse must not remain all night upon the tree.” The sons of Rizpah remained on the stake more than six months and Rizpah stayed with her sons until it rained.

The reason the bodies were left on the cross was because they were making atonement f Saul’s sin and they had to remain there until the end of the drought. The coming of the rain was a sign that God’s judgement had come to an end and that the sins of the nation had been forgiven.

Day and night, week after week, Rizpah kept a dreary watch over her dead sons, scaring away scavenger birds from feeding on their bodies during the day and not allowing wild animals to eat their bodies at night.

This demonstration of maternal affection is very moving. Her action is the action of a loving mother moved by grief, deeply affected by the agony her sons suffered on that cruel cross. Her attempt at protecting the integrity of the exposed bodies of her sons reveals the fire of love which burned intensively in Rizpah’s heart.

The tragedy and the agony of Rizpah has been captured in the poem by Felicia Hemans:

The Vigil of Rizpah

Who watches on the mountain with the dead,
Alone before the awfulness of night?
A seer awaiting the deep spirit’s might?
A warrior guarding some dark pass of dread ?

No, a lorn woman! –On her drooping head,
Once proudly graceful, heavy beats the rain;
She reeks not–living for the unburied slain,
Only to scare the vulture from their bed.

So, night by night, her vigil hath she kept
With the pale stars, and with the dews hath wept.
Oh! surely some bright Presence from above
On those wild rocks the lonely one must aid!
Even so; a strengthener through all storm and shade,
The unconquerable Angel: mightiest Love!

May the memory of this loving mother be a blessing to all!


Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: David, Gibeonites, Love, Mother, Rizpah