1Sa 2:5 | NETfull | STEP | Those who are well-fed hire themselves out to earn food, but the hungry no longer lack. Even the barren woman gives birth to seven, but the one with many children withers away.

1 Samuel 2:5

5 Those who are well-fed hire themselves out to earn food,
but the hungry no longer lack.
Even ^{▼▼ Against BHS but with the MT, the preposition (עַד, ’ad) should be taken with what follows rather than with what precedes. For this sense of the preposition see Job 25:5.} the barren woman gives birth to seven, ^{▼▼ The number seven is used here in an ideal sense. Elsewhere in the OT having seven children is evidence of fertility as a result of God’s blessing on the family. See, for example, Jer 15:9, Ruth 4:15.}
but the one with many children withers away. ^{▼▼ Or “languishes.”}