{N}1,{/}1 We have here one of the pages of the Bible -there are not many- which has us enter into the life of an ordinary family. It is the life and ordinary path of the immense majority of people for whom all that we say about religion and spirituality, and all our theological discussions and complaints, are basically reserved for specialists. They are not less loved and God lets them know what is expected of them.
The problem of the two wives has undoubtedly complicated the best years of the beautiful life of Elkanah, although he did the impossible to safeguard peace in his family. Hannah understands that she will not have a son until she accepts she will have to give him up. The son she receives is possibly the only response received from God in her entire life and with this unique sign she will be proud of God (2,2-9). How can we not be ashamed of begging so often for signs!
What had they received from God's revelation? Faith in the Only One? The assurance that He is just and always has the last word? Without a doubt here we find the rebounds from the Sinai Alliance among the israelites who were not instructed. And the priests, once again, do not perform well, but are rather the scandal that must be overcome in order to affirm one's faith. These are the ways of God and through them the humble will reach Glory, with or without having borne a son like Samuel.

{N}29,{/}1 The beginning of this chapter leaves us uncomfortable and plants seeds of doubt about the awareness that David could have had of his israelite identity. The book that follows (actually only the second half of the Book of Samuel) will show David preoccupied with obtaining the unity of Israel for his own benefit. However the pages that have just been read, are they objective when they present David as the hope of the israelites and the noble victim of an envious and maniac Saul? This is the moment perhaps to remember that nothing is known of the tribe of Judah before David; then Judah was without a doubt simply the name of this region in the hills of Judah, occupied by diverse clans, the most important of them being the Quenitians. The hard line of these tribes, the heirs of Moses, were Efrain, Manases and Benjamin, Saul's tribe.
A very different interpretation could be given to this story. Against Saul, who, somewhat clumsily, tries to unite the tribes, David comes out as the champion of the people from the South. With his warriors he unites the tribe of Judah at the same time that he paralizes Saul's forces to unify Israel. David is the one who is successful and Judah, the new upstart, will displace those who until that time preserved the ideal of Israel in gestation. David will receive God's promises for his dynasty, but will have contributed to strongly rooting the mutual resentments between north and south, preparing the schism which takes place sixty years later.
This idea invites us to reflect upon God's and men's actions in people of God history and also the part which corresponds to the writers inspired in the fabrication of the holy story. Freedom exists to make other interpretations and they could even be more correct, but they would still only be interpretations, and history would not change.
This is because the Bible gave a sense to the story and the holy writers simply prolonged the first vision in the books of Samuel. In the first book, David conquers Goliath; at the end of the second book, he will be the author of the Psalms. The Chronicles will make David the creator of the Temple and all worship in Israel. It can be thought that David seems far from this legend, yet no one can deny that his story, as it has been transmitted to us, is a carrier of an enormous spiritual and human force. It determined in a good part the destiny of the jews, and without this story Jesus would have lost his human roots. Here we must recognize that the inspired book escapes man and that God uses it to supremely direct the destiny of his people.

