A Passionate Hope: Hannah's Story (Daughters of the Promised Land, #4)

by Jill Eileen Smith

Hannah and her husband, Elkanah, share a deep and abiding love, for each other, for their God, and for his tabernacle at Shiloh. Greatly disturbed by the corruption of the priests, they long for restoration and pray for a deliverer. But nothing changes as the years pass. Years that also reveal Hannah to be barren.

Pressured by his family to take another wife, Elkanah marries Peninnah, who quickly begins to bear children. Disgraced and taunted by her husband's new wife, Hannah turns again to prayers that seem doomed to go unanswered. Do her devotion and kindness in the face of Peninnah's cruelty count for nothing? Why does God remain silent and indifferent to her pleas?

Travel back to the dusty streets of Shiloh with an expert guide as Jill Eileen Smith brings to life a beloved story of hope, patience, and deliverance that shows that even the most broken of relationships can be restored.

• ISBN13: 9781432851477
• Publish Date: 11 July 2018 (first published 6 February 2018)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 20 December 2024
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Cengage Learning, Inc
• Imprint: Cengage Gale
• Edition: Large type / large print edition
• Format: Hardcover (Library Binding)
• Pages: 453
• Language: English

Reviews

[phyllish]

I am grateful to Revell for giving me a copy of this book. The fact I received this book for free does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

My review is 3.5 Stars

Hannah's story has always been one that has touched my heart, so when I saw this book, I was very curious to read it.  The author did a great job in describing how and why Elkanah might have had two wives when he clearly loved Hannah more than Peninnah.  Her thoughts as to how the actions of Hophni and Phineas, the corrupt priests, could have grieved other Levites (and Israelites in general) makes perfect sense and ended up being a very interesting element of the book.

The emotions in the book were very intense, and I felt almost as if I was experiencing them myself.  I greatly appreciated the deep love that both Hannah and Elkanah had such a deep reverence and love for the Lord and the way it was evidence throughout the story.

The author's love for the Lord shines clearly in this book, though I won't consider this story to be Christian Fiction (because it does not contain any Christian message other than very subtly).  It is most certainly Biblical Fiction and would be appreciated by all who love the Old Testament.

There were a few places in the book where things didn't seem consistent with other things that had been said.  I hate to give any spoilers and say exactly what they were.  And the overall mood of the book was loneliness, though there were some sweet moments of praise.

There were some serious thematic elements to the story that make this a book best for adults, in my opinion.

This review was originally posted on Among the Reads

[readingwithwrin]

My Rating: 4.75 stars

Thank you to Revell for a Physical ARC in exchange for my honest review.

"How did women give Adonai Tzva'ot, the Lord of Hosts, control of everything she longed for? Everything she healds dear?"

Hannah's story is one we've heard before, but it's also one we know next to nothing about. We know she was the mother of Samuel and that she was barren for a very long time, but besides that, she is hardly mentioned.

Hannah is in love with Elkanah and he loves her just as much. But they can't seem to conceive a baby no matter how many sacrifices they give, or how much they pray to God. With pressure from his family about not having any children Elkanah takes another wife and starts procreating like crazy. All while still having Hannah be his favorite wife, causing a lot of resentment and anger in his second wife.

Peninnah was one of those people you instantly dislike. She was told so many times to choose someone else, that he would never love her, but she still insisted on Elkanah or no one. This made her extremely bitter as time went on and things just got extremely messy for her with her own mother and his family.

"Even her bitterness could not give her what she wanted most. Elkanah's love."

As time goes on and his second wife gets angrier, and angrier at Hannah and Elkanah is at a loss as to what he should do. He wishes he had never given in to his parents and taken a second wife.

"I do not love you less because you haven't given me children. What can a son give you that I do not? A son grows up and marries and loves a wife more than his mother. As I love you more than mine. Never forget that."

More time goes on and Hannah makes a promise to God that if he gives her a son, she will give him back to him to serve all the days of his life. This works and she is granted a child, but she knows she must fulfill her promise, breaking hers and Elkanah's hearts.
While this breaks the rest of the families hearts as well, because they knew how much Hannah wanted a child and how deeply she loved this child, they also supported their choice to fulfill the promise Hannah made.

While Elkanah's family was having these struggles. The priests were running wild and not following the laws put into place. Sacrifices weren't being done right, the priests were raping young women and having multiple illegitimate children, and ruining many lives along the way.

This greatly upset many people, but they had no idea how to stop it. Hannah hopes that her son will be the one that changes things, and she feels like that is why God finally answered her prayers.

Overall I really liked this story. Hannah is one of the women in the bible I've always wanted to know more about. While this is a work of fiction, I felt like certain parts of it could be true. Women are left out of the bible a lot, and because of that, we get to have fictional stories such as this one that in a way answer some of the questions that I have about them. While I'll never get definitive answers to my questions, even knowing that at least one other person has the same assumptions about them is comforting.

"No child of Israel is meant to be enslaved all of their lives. I am giving you your freedom whether you like it or not."

I also liked all the side characters added in. Nava was a servant who felt more like a child and best friend to Hannah than a servant. I really liked that because we got to see more of Hannah's true feelings instead of just her inner thoughts and what she would tell Elkanah.

"We can all feel as though our lives have become a burden to others, especially when they seem to have no purpose."