Genesis 16:1

Up to that time, Abram’s wife Sarai had not given birth to any children for Abram. But she had a female slave from Egypt, whose name was Hagar.

Translation for Translators

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 one day Sarai said to Abram, “Listen to me! Yahweh has not allowed me to become pregnant. So ◄sleep with/have sex with► [EUP] my slave Hagar. Perhaps she will bear children whom I can consider to be mine.” Abram agreed to do what Sarai said.

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Cross References

Genesis 11:30Sarai was unable to bear any children.

Genesis 15:2But Abram replied, “Yahweh God, how can you give me what I truly want, because I have no children, and the one who will be like a son and inherit all my possessions is my servant Eliezer from Damascus!”

Genesis 21:12But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed about your son, Ishmael, and about your maidservant, Hagar. Do everything that Sarah tells you to do. Listen to her, because Isaac is the one who will be considered the ancestor of the descendants I promised to give you.

Genesis 25:21Almost 20 years after they were married, Rebekah still had no children. So Isaac prayed to Yahweh concerning his wife, and Yahweh answered his prayer. His wife Rebekah became pregnant.

Luke 1:7But they had no children, because Elizabeth had been unable to bear children. Furthermore, she and her husband were very old.

Galatians 4:24I am telling you this as an illustration. These two women symbolize two agreements. God made the first agreement, which involved obeying the laws that God gave to Moses at Sinai Mountain. Because that agreement forces those who accept it to keep obeying all its rules [MET], it is like a slave mother who gives birth to slaves. So Hagar, the female slave, symbolizes that agreement.

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 →

This Verse In Other Editions

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