Genesis 16:1
Abram and Sarai lived in that Canaan country, and after they were there for 10 years, they still had no kids. Sarai had a woman from Egypt working for her, called Hagar. She was Sarai’s slave. That means Sarai owned Hagar, and Hagar had to do everything that Sarai told her to do. Sarai was sad because she had no kids, but she got an idea about how to get a baby for herself. So she said to Abram, “God has stopped me from having my own kids. But listen. I want you to sleep with Hagar, like she is your wife. You see, she belongs to me, so if she has a baby, that baby will really belong to me.” So Abram did that, just like Sarai said.
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Genesis 11:30but Abram and Sarai didn’t have any kids. Sarai just couldn’t have a baby.
Genesis 15:2Then Abram talked to God, and he called God by his special name Yahweh. He said, “Yahweh, you are very powerful. But look, I’ve got no son, so it doesn’t matter what you give me. You haven’t given me the one thing I really want. You haven’t given me any kids. So when I die, one of my work-men will get all my things. His name is Eliyezer. He is from Damascus.”
Genesis 21:12But God said to Abraham, “Don’t worry about Ishmael or his mother. You see, the family that I promised you will come from Isaac, not from Ishmael. So listen to Sarah, and do what she says.
Genesis 25:21At first, after Isaac and Rebekah got married, they didn’t have any kids. Rebekah just couldn’t have a baby. So Isaac prayed strongly to God. He said, “Please let Rebekah have a baby.” God listened to Isaac, and God made 2 baby boys start growing inside Rebekah.
Luke 1:7They got very old, but they didn’t have any kids. You see, Elizabeth just couldn’t have a baby.
Galatians 4:24That old story teaches us something else too. Those 2 women are like pictures of the 2 agreements that God made with his people. Hagar is like the agreement that God made on the big hill called Sinai, where he gave the Jews their law. That agreement makes people like prisoners. They are not free. They have to work all the time to follow that law.
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 →