“Then Hannah prayed and said:
‘My heart rejoices in the LORD;
in the LORD my horn is lifted high.
My mouth boasts over my enemies,
for I delight in your deliverance.'”
-1 Samuel 2:1
In her prayer Hannah speaks of her “horn” being lifted high before the Lord.
Now what in the world does that mean?
The Hebrew word is KEREN or קֶרֶן
Let’s explore the meaning of this word for a sec because there seems to be a distinct difference between how modern scholars understand the word and how the ancients understood it.
The first thing you’ll notice when examining this verse containing the word “horn” is that there’s a ton of translation variety depending on which English Bible you’re using.
The Complete Jewish Bible translates KEREN as “dignity”.
In other versions, it’s rendered as “victory”, “strength” or “might”.
None of these translations are necessarily incorrect.
But let’s dig into the real and ancient cultural background of the term.
Take a look at this picture of a bull with a pair of mighty fine looking horns if you ask me.
In the ancient Middle East the bull or ox was considered to be the greatest symbol of power and authority.
And it was the horns of the bull that were the focal point of its awesome strength and ability to cause serious damage.
So when Hannah in her prayer used the word “horn”, she didn’t literally have a picture of a bull’s horns in her head.
It’s just that in a farming society, using a bull’s horns in everyday speech to express authority and power was the norm.
So when Hannah thanked the Lord for raising up her “horn”, it was an expression of VICTORY.
BEFORE her horn was raised up, she had no dignity as a childless wife in the ancient Middle East.
AFTER her horn was raised up, her dignity and womanhood was RESTORED and she felt like the Lord had made her a whole person again.
Now there’s another part in the Bible where “horns” make a grand appearance…
And not in a good way I might add.
Take a look at these verses:
“I saw a beast with ten horns and seven heads rising out of the blackness of the sea. On its horns hung ten crowns, and on its heads were inscribed blasphemous names. This beast was like a leopard, its feet were like the claws of a bear, and its mouth was like the jaws of a lion. The dragon bestowed it with his power and his throne and his great authority.”-Revelations 13:1-2
So in this context the horns are also metaphorical.
They refer to 10 rulers and their strength and authority.
Afterwards an 11th horn shows up who is stronger than the 10 horns combined and rules over them.
This horn is usually labelled as the Anti-Christ.
So here’s the takeaway for today.
There are two types of horns in Scripture.
Horns raised up by God…
And horns raised up by the devil.
Hannah’s horn and the future horn (king) of Israel are horns raised up by God.
However, the horns of the Revelation beast are raised up by Satan.
Hannah’s horn was ordained by God…
And thus can never be defeated or overturned.
On the other hand, the devil’s horns…
While they may appear quite menacing…
Are destined to be defeated in God’s perfect timing.
Love it
It’s funny that in the divine pattern of The Temple, Solomon’s in particular, we see the 12 Apostolic bulls bearing the Altar of sacrifice with the four horns on top. Then in the Holy Place we find horns again on the incense laver. Two seperate areas and functions. The outer court, all could come but in last days it is not counted by His messenger to measure and given to the gentiles to trample underfoot. The Holy Place where only priests could enter we find a different type of sacrifice. Outer court dealt with sin/flesh inner court is all about The Light, The Word/Bread and the Incense. Way, Truth n Life in which is to prepare for the Holy of Holies which this truth is found in entirety but the veil was torn, salvation will be realised on earth when Messiah establishes His intention, which if we can’t even get the flesh out the way how can we expect to partake of the spiritual. Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand means to change one’s mind, lining it to The King, this is our sacrifice, dying to our ideas and coming alive in His Truth and standard eternally
Great comment Nick. Thanks for sharing.
Rich,
Great post.
In a world without tanks, front-end loaders, and Falcon 9 rockets, the three most POWERFUL things an ancient person living in Canaan might ever see would be
*earthquake
*thunderstorm + hail
*and a BULL
The first two are relatively rare in Israel. But you might see a bull every day . . .and you would see it’s power on display – broken fences, people sometimes trampled or gored.
BTW you managed to find a picture of a bull using its right ear like a turn signal LOL
Thanks for your comment Eric. Just pulled that photo randomly from somewhere.