According to Lillian Klein, the use of this chiasmus underscores the standing of the women: Hannah is the primary wife, yet Peninnah has succeeded in bearing children.

One day Hannah went up to the Tabernacle and prayed with great weeping (I Samuel 1:10), while Eli the High Priest was sitting on a chair near the doorpost.

Hannah is also considered to be a prophetess: in her song of thanksgiving (1 Samuel 2:1–10) she is inspired “to discern in her own individual experience the universal laws of the divine economy, and to recognise its significance for the whole course of the Kingdom of God".

The resemblance lies in thought and tone more than in actual language, and supplies a most delicate and valuable testimony to the appropriateness of this hymn to Hannah’s circumstances".

According to Michelle Osherow, Hannah represents the character of the earnest petitioner and grateful celebrant of divine glory.

[8][9] Alternatively, Nadav Na'aman argues that the verbal root sh-'-l is actually related to the name "Shiloh", the place where Samuel was born.

The next time Elkanah goes to Shiloh, Hannah remains home to care for her child, but tells him that she will present the boy to the Lord when he is weaned.

William Wailes created a stained-glass window depicting Hannah, Samuel and Eli for the Church of St. Mary the Virgin in Ambleside, Great Britain.