a woman · noun, common feminine singular construct
bare
יָלְדָ֖הYal.dah
H3205
to bear young · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person feminine singular
no
לֹ֥אlo'
H3808
not (the simple or abs. negation) · negative particle
children
יָלַדyâlad
H3205
to bear young
handmaid
שִׁפְחָ֥הshif.Chah
H8198
a female slave (as a member of the household) · noun, common feminine singular absolute
Egyptian
מִצְרִ֖יתmitz.Rit
H4713
a Mitsrite · noun, gentilic feminine singular absolute
name
וּשְׁמָ֥הּu.she.Mah
H8034
an appellation · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine singular
Hagar
הָגָֽרha.Gar
H1904
Hagar · proper noun, a woman's name
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Galatians 4:24 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.
Genesis 12:16 And he entreated Abram well for her sake: and he had sheep, and oxen, and he asses, and menservants, and maidservants, and she asses, and ca…
Genesis 15:2-3 And Abram said, Lord GOD, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?
Genesis 21:9-10 And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking.
Genesis 11:30 But Sarai was barren; she had no child.
Genesis 21:12 And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said…
Genesis 21:21 And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran: and his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt.
Genesis 25:21 And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Genesis 16:1-3
We have here the marriage of Abram to Hagar, who was his secondary wife. Herein, though some excuse may be made for him, he cannot be justified, for from the beginning it was not so; and, when it was so, it seems to have proceeded from an irregular desire to build up families for the speedier peopling of the world and the church. Certainly it must not be so now. Christ has reduced this matter to the first institution, and makes the marriage union to be between one man and one woman only. Now,
I. The maker of this match (would one think it?) was Sarai herself: she said to Abram, I pray thee, go in unto my maid, Gen 16:2. Note, 1. It is the policy of Satan to tempt us by our nearest and deares…
She had a handmaid, an Egyptian - As Hagar was an Egyptian, St. Chrysostom's conjecture is very probable. that she was one of those female slaves which Pharaoh gave to Abram when he sojourned in Egypt; see Gen 12:16. Her name הגר hagar signifies a stranger or sojourner, and it is likely she got this name in the family of Abram, as the word is pure Hebrew.
John Gill on Genesis 16:1
Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bare him no children,.... She is before said to be barren, and he to be childless, Genesis 11:30; God had promised him a seed, but as yet he had none, which was a trial of his faith; he had been married many years to Sarai his wife, she was his wife when they came out of Ur of the Chaldees, and how long before cannot be said; they stayed and dwelt some time at Haran, the Jews (x) say five years, and they had been now ten years in the land of Canaan, Genesis 16:3; and were advanced in years, the one being seventy five, and the other eighty five, so that there was no great probability of having any children, wherefore the following step was taken:
and she had an handm…
Now Sarai , Abram's wife. Moses here recites a new history, namely, that Sarai, through the impatience of long delay, resorted to a method of obtaining seed by her husband, at variance with the word of God. She saw that she was barren, and had passed the age of bearing. And she inferred the necessity of a new remedy, in order that Abram might obtain the promised blessing. Moses expressly relates, that the design of marrying a second wife did not originate with Abram himself, but with Sarai, to teach us that the holy man was not impelled by lust to these nuptials; but that when he was thinking of no such thing, he was induced to engage in them, by the exhortation of his wife. It is, however,…
The Church Fathers
Therefore Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne no children, but she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar. She said to her husband, "Behold, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children, so go into my maidservant; perhaps I shall obtain children by her." And when he agreed to her request, she took Hagar the Egyptian maidservant after ten years of dwelling in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband as a wife. He went in to her, and when she saw that she had conceived, she despised her mistress, etc. The Apostle to the Galatians has fully discussed how Hagar and Ishmael symbolize the Synagogue and the Old Testament, while Sara and her son Isaac symbolize the Church and the New Testament. As for the matter in question, it is not to be inferred at all that this concubine's relationship implies a crime on Abraham's part, for he used her to produce offspring, not to fulfill lust; nor did he act insultingly, but rather in obedience to his wife, who believed that the fertile womb of the maidservant would provide comfort for her own barrenness, an act that nature could not accomplish but will made her own; and that right which the Apostle states: "Likewise, the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does" (1 Corinthians 7:4), the wife could make use of another for bearing children when she could not do so herself. Lastly, when the pregnant maidservant became haughty towards her barren mistress, and Sarai, in womanly suspicion, blamed her husband, Abram demonstrated that he had been not a lover, but a willing progenitor, preserving modesty with Hagar and fulfilling his wife's will rather than his own. He said, "Behold, your maidservant is in your hand, use her as you see fit."
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Abraham — Father of a multitude, son of Terah, named (Gen. 11:27) before his older brothers Nahor and Haran, because he was the heir of the promises. Till the age of seventy, Abram sojourned among his kindred…
Concubine — In the Bible denotes a female conjugally united to a man, but in a relation inferior to that of a wife. Among the early Jews, from various causes, the difference between a wife and a concubine was…
Hagar — Flight, or, according to others, stranger, an Egyptian, Sarah’s handmaid (Gen. 16:1; 21:9, 10), whom she gave to Abraham (q.v.) as a secondary wife (16:2). When she was about to become a mother she…
Handmaid — Servant (Gen. 16:1; Ruth 3:9; Luke 1:48). It is probable that Hagar was Sarah’s personal attendant while she was in the house of Pharaoh, and was among those maid-servants whom Abram had brought from…
Marriage — Was instituted in Paradise when man was in innocence (Gen. 2:18-24). Here we have its original charter, which was confirmed by our Lord, as the basis on which all regulations are to be framed (Matt.…
Sarah · .Is sterile; gives her handmai — .Is sterile; gives her handmai
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
As the promise of a lineal heir (Gen 15:4) did not seem likely to be fulfilled, even after the covenant had been made, Sarai resolved, ten years after their entrance into Canaan, to give her Egyptian maid Hagar to her husband, that if possible she might "be built up by her," i.e., obtain children, who might found a house or family (Gen 30:3). The resolution seemed a judicious one, and according to the customs of the East, there would be nothing wrong in carrying it out. Hence Abraham consented without opposition, because, as Malachi (Mal 2:15) says, he sought the seed promised by God. But they were both of them soon to learn, that their thoughts were the thoughts of man and not of God, and t…
While waiting for their promised son to be born, Abram and Sarai attempted an alternate plan that was not in keeping with faith.
16:1-3 Abram and Sarai faced the tension of her being barren and beyond childbearing years. By custom, a barren woman could give her servant to her husband as a slave-wife; the child born to that union was considered the wife’s child and could be adopted as the heir. Sarai’s suggestion, unobjectionable by custom, set a problematic human plan in motion. God’s promises would be fulfilled by faith.
Rashi on Genesis 16:1
שפחה מצרית A HANDMAID, AN EGYPTIAN — She was a daughter of Pharaoh; when he saw the miracles which had been performed for Sarah’s take he said, “It is better for my daughter to be a handmaid in this man’s house than be mistress in another man’s house” (Genesis Rabbah 45:1).
