Genesis 16:1
Now Sarai [Mockery], Avram [Exalted father]’s wife, bore him no children. She had a servant, an Egyptian [person from Abode of slavery], whose name was Hagar [Flight]. + 16:1 Context: Hagar: In (Gen. 12:10–20) Abraham and “his sister” Sarah went down to Egypt, Sarah was taken to the house of Pharaoh. In response, Adonai afflicted Pharaoh and all his household with mighty plagues. In the midrash (Gen. Rabbah 45:1), Pharoah sees the character and relationship to the God that Sarah and Abraham have, so he gives Sarah his own daughter so that she can learn to be of this type of person. He said: “It would be better for my daughter to be a handmaiden in this house than a noblewoman in another Egyptian.”
One Unity Resource Bible
In The King James Version
In Context
Cross References
Genesis 11:30Sarai [Mockery] was barren. She had no child.
Genesis 15:2Avram [Exalted father] said, “ 'Adonay Adonai [Lord Yahweh], what will you give me, since I go childless, and he who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus [Bucket of blood]?”
Genesis 21:12God said to Abraham [Father of a multitude], “Don’t let it be grievous in your sight because of the boy, and because of your servant. In all that Sarah [Princess] says to you, sh'ma ·hear obey· her voice. For your offspring will be accounted as from Isaac [Laughter]. + 21:12. Quoted in Rom 9:7; Heb 11:18
Genesis 25:21Isaac [Laughter] entreated Adonai for his wife, because she was barren. Adonai was entreated by him, and Rebekah [Securely bound] his wife conceived.
Luke 1:7But they had no child, because Elizabeth [My God oath] was barren, and they both were well advanced in years.
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 →