Genesis 16:1

Sarai, Abram's wife, hadn't been able to have any children for him. However, she owned a female Egyptian slave named Hagar,

Free Bible Version

In The King James Version

Now Sarai Abram’s wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.

In Context

2so Sarai said to Abram, “Please listen to me. The Lord hasn't let me have any children. So please go and sleep with my slave. Maybe I can have a family through her.” Abram agreed to what Sarai had suggested.

Read all of Genesis 16

Cross References

Genesis 11:30Sarai wasn't able to become pregnant and so had no children.

Genesis 15:2But Abram replied, “Lord God, what good is whatever you give me? I don't have any children, and the heir to all that I have is Eliezer of Damascus.”

Genesis 21:12But God told Abraham, “Don't feel bad about the boy and the slave woman. Do whatever Sarah tells you, because it's through Isaac that your descendants will be counted.

Genesis 25:21Isaac prayed to the Lord for help on behalf of his wife because she couldn't have children. The Lord answered his prayer and she became pregnant.

Luke 1:7They had no children because Elizabeth wasn't able to have any, and they were both growing old.

Galatians 4:24This provides an analogy: these two women represent two agreements. One agreement is from Mount Sinai—Hagar—and she gives birth to slave children.

Matthew Henry on Genesis 16:1

Hagar is the person mostly concerned in the story of this chapter, an obscure Egyptian woman, whose name and story we never should have heard of if Providence had not brought her into the family of Abram. Probably she was one of those maid-servants whom the king of Egypt, among other gifts, bestowed upon Abram, ch. xiv. 16 . Concerning her, we have four things in this chapter:—I. Her marriage to Abram her master, ver. 1-3 . II. Her misbehaviour towards Sarai her mistress, ver. 4-6 . III. Her discourse with an… Read the whole commentary →

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