Hannah's Bold Vow and the Riddle of Ahab's Seventy Sons

"I am the LORD your God who brought you up out of the land of Egypt; open your mouth wide and I will fill it" (Psalms 81:11). Rabbi Chaggai in the name of Rabbi Yitzchak said: One does not ask for poverty in a place of wealth, for out of this Hannah leaped to vows, "And she vowed a vow and said [etc.]." [It is written:] "LORD, I have heard the report of You, I was afraid, etc." (Habakkuk 3:2). Hannah said before the Holy One, blessed be He: Master of the worlds, Abraham did Your will, and You gave him a son at a hundred years; Ahab worships idolatry, and he begot seventy sons. ("LORD, I have heard the report of You, I was afraid.") Sarah did Your will, and You gave her a son at ninety years; Jezebel, a daughter of priests, she bears seventy sons. It is written: "And Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria" (2 Kings 10:1). [Just as he had seventy sons in Samaria,] so did he have seventy sons in Jezreel, and each and every one of them had [two] palaces, one of summer and one palace of winter. This is what is written: "And I will smite the winter house upon the summer house" (Amos 3:15). Rabbi Yudah son of Rabbi Simon said: Four, [as it is said,] "and the houses of ivory shall perish" (ibid.). And the Rabbis say: Six, [as it is said,] "and many houses shall come to an end" (ibid.). For out of this Hannah leaped to vows, "And she vowed a vow and said, etc."