What Does 1 Samuel 2:1 Mean?
And Hannah prayed, and said, My heart leaps in the LORD, my horn is lifted high in the LORD; my mouth is widened over my enemies, because I rejoice in your deliverance.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And Hannah prayed, and said, My heart rejoiceth in the LORD, mine horn is exalted in the LORD: my mouth is enlarged over mine enemies; because I rejoice in thy salvation.THE KEY
Hannah’s deliverance becomes spaciousness you can hear: her mouth widens over the people set against her.
THE MEANING
Your heart rejoices in the LORD; your strength rises in him, and your mouth opens wide against those opposing you. Deliverance is not merely inward relief here: it gives your voice room to speak in the face of real enemies.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that opposition gets to determine the size of your voice. Here, the measure comes from deliverance in the LORD, and the mouth opens wide.
THE ROOT
בִּישׁוּעָתֶךָ
bi-yeshuʿātekha
GROWS FROM
ישע
y-sh-ʿ
To deliver or rescue; the verse pairs this with the distinct root רחב (r-ḥ-b, “widen”), making deliverance spatial.
The root ישע (y-sh-ʿ, deliver) names the rescue Hannah celebrates, while her mouth made wide gives that deliverance spatial shape. The verse links a changed circumstance with a voice and strength no longer hemmed in.
ALSO GROWS
yēšaʿ: deliverance, rescue
יֵשַׁע
This noun shares the root and names the event Hannah celebrates.
môšîaʿ: deliverer, rescuer
מוֹשִׁיעַ
The same root can name the one who brings a person out, locating the opening in God’s action.
רָחַב
rāḥav
GROWS FROM
רחב
r-ḥ-b
To widen, broaden, or make room.
“widened” in this verse is rāḥav. The root רחב (r-ḥ-b, widen) makes the mouth’s enlargement an image of open space. Hannah’s mouth does not merely get louder: it has room to open against her enemies.
ALSO GROWS
Reḥovot: broad places, spacious places
רְחֹבוֹת
At Rehoboth, Isaac says the LORD has made room for them; the same spatial image appears in Hannah’s enlarged mouth.
reḥov: broad street, open place
רְחֹב
This branch pictures widening as entry into open space, giving the mouth’s enlargement a concrete sense.
קַרְנִי
qarnî
GROWS FROM
קרן
q-r-n
Horn or projecting point, with a related verbal sense of shining or sending out rays.
The noun קֶרֶן (qeren, horn) shares the root קרן (q-r-n) with the verb קָרַן (qāran, shine or send out rays). The image is strength raised visibly, matching the verse’s widening mouth and open triumph.
ALSO GROWS
qeren: horn, a projecting point
קֶרֶן
The lifted horn makes Hannah’s strength visible rather than hidden.
qāran: to shine, send out rays
קָרַן
This related verb shows the root’s outward, projecting quality, echoing the strength that rises in the verse.
THE PATTERN
When deliverance brings a person out of constriction, there is room for life and voice to expand.
And he pulled up from there, and dug another well, and over that they did not strive. And he called the name of it Rehoboth, the wide places, and he said, For now the LORD has widened a place for us, and we shall bear fruit in the land.From the narrow place I call out to the LORD, and the LORD answers me in a wide place.O Corinthians, our mouth is open toward you, our heart is widened.THE THREAD
The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my rock, in whom I shelter; my shield, and the horn of my deliverance, and my high place.The Hebrew root ישע (y-sh-ʿ, deliver) names both Hannah’s “salvation” and the psalm’s “salvation,” while the horn image appears in both verses. The strength raised in Hannah is rooted in deliverance itself.
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