Bible Encyclopedias
Elkanah

The 1901 Jewish Encyclopedia

Father of Samuel, living at Ramah (1 Samuel 1:19, 2:11; comp. 28:3), in the district of Zuph. Hence in 1 Samuel 1:1 his ancestral line is carried back to Zuph (comp. 1 Samuel 9:5 et seq.). The word in 1 Samuel 1:1 should be emended to ("the Zuphite"), the final mem being a ditto-gram of that with which the next word, , begins; as the LXX. has it, Σειφὰ. Elkanah is also represented in 1 Samuel 1:1 as hailing from the mountains of Ephraim, the word here denoting this (comp. Judges 12:5; IKings 11:26)—if indeed is not a corruption for "Ephraimite"—and not, as in Judges 1:2 and 1 Samuel 17:12, an inhabitant of Ephrata (see Lxx.). His genealogy is also found in a pedigree of the Kohathites (1 Chronicles 6:3-15) and in that of Heman, his great-grandson (ib. 6:18-22). According to the genealogical tables, Elkanah was, a Levite, a fact otherwise not mentioned in the books of Samuel. The fact that Elkanah, a Levite, was denominated an Ephraimite is analogous to the designation of a Levite belonging to Judah (Judges 17:7).