Genesis 16:2-4

16:2 So Sarai said to Abram, “Since ¹  the Lord has prevented me from having children, have sexual relations with ²  my servant. Perhaps I can have a family by her.” ³  Abram did what ⁴  Sarai told him.

16:3 So after Abram had lived ⁵  in Canaan for ten years, Sarai, Abram’s wife, gave Hagar, her Egyptian servant, ⁶  to her husband to be his wife. ⁷  16:4 He had sexual relations with ⁸  Hagar, and she became pregnant. ⁹  Once Hagar realized she was pregnant, she despised Sarai. ¹⁰ 

Genesis 16:15

16:15 So Hagar gave birth to Abram’s son, whom Abram named Ishmael. ¹¹ 

Genesis 21:1-2

The Birth of Isaac

21:1 The Lord visited ¹²  Sarah just as he had said he would and did ¹³  for Sarah what he had promised. ¹⁴  21:2 So Sarah became pregnant ¹⁵  and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the appointed time that God had told him.

Genesis 21:10

21:10 So she said to Abraham, “Banish ¹⁶  that slave woman and her son, for the son of that slave woman will not be an heir along with my son Isaac!”

[16:2]  ¹ tn Heb “look.” The particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) introduces the foundational clause for the imperative to follow.

[16:2]  ² tn Heb “enter to.” The expression is a euphemism for sexual relations (also in v. 4).

[16:2]  ³ tn Heb “perhaps I will be built from her.” Sarai hopes to have a family established through this surrogate mother.

[16:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “listened to the voice of,” which is an idiom meaning “obeyed.”

[16:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “at the end of ten years, to live, Abram.” The prepositional phrase introduces the temporal clause, the infinitive construct serves as the verb, and the name “Abram” is the subject.

[16:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “the Egyptian, her female servant.”

[16:3]  ⁷ sn To be his wife. Hagar became a slave wife, not on equal standing with Sarai. However, if Hagar produced the heir, she would be the primary wife in the eyes of society. When this eventually happened, Hagar become insolent, prompting Sarai’s anger.

[16:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “entered to.” See the note on the same expression in v. 2.

[16:4]  ⁹ tn Or “she conceived” (also in v. 5)

[16:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and she saw that she was pregnant and her mistress was despised in her eyes.” The Hebrew verb קָלַל (qalal) means “to despise, to treat lightly, to treat with contempt.” In Hagar’s opinion Sarai had been demoted.

[16:15]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and Abram called the name of his son whom Hagar bore, Ishmael.”

[21:1]  ¹² sn The Hebrew verb translated “visit” (פָּקַד, paqad ) often describes divine intervention for blessing or cursing; it indicates God’s special attention to an individual or a matter, always with respect to his people’s destiny. He may visit (that is, destroy) the Amalekites; he may visit (that is, deliver) his people in Egypt. Here he visits Sarah, to allow her to have the promised child. One’s destiny is changed when the Lord “visits.” For a more detailed study of the term, see G. André, Determining the Destiny (ConBOT).

[21:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “and the Lord did.” The divine name has not been repeated here in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[21:1]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “spoken.”

[21:2]  ¹⁵ tn Or “she conceived.”

[21:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “drive out.” The language may seem severe, but Sarah’s maternal instincts sensed a real danger in that Ishmael was not treating Isaac with the proper respect.