Genesis 16:6

16:6 Abram said to Sarai, “Since your ¹  servant is under your authority, ²  do to her whatever you think best.” ³  Then Sarai treated Hagar ⁴  harshly, ⁵  so she ran away from Sarai. ⁶ 

Genesis 16:1

The Birth of Ishmael

16:1 Now Sarai, ⁷  Abram’s wife, had not given birth to any children, ⁸  but she had an Egyptian servant ⁹  named Hagar. ¹⁰ 

Genesis 8:6

8:6 At the end of forty days, ¹¹  Noah opened the window he had made in the ark ¹² 

Genesis 29:6

29:6 “Is he well?” ¹³  Jacob asked. They replied, “He is well. ¹⁴  Now look, here comes his daughter Rachel with the sheep.”

[16:6]  ¹ tn The clause is introduced with the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh), introducing a foundational clause for the coming imperative: “since…do.”

[16:6]  ² tn Heb “in your hand.”

[16:6]  ³ tn Heb “what is good in your eyes.”

[16:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “her”; the referent (Hagar) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[16:6]  ⁵ tn In the Piel stem the verb עָנָה (’anah) means “to afflict, to oppress, to treat harshly, to mistreat.”

[16:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “and she fled from her presence.” The referent of “her” (Sarai) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[16:1]  ⁷ tn The disjunctive clause signals the beginning of a new episode in the story.

[16:1]  ⁸ sn On the cultural background of the story of Sarai’s childlessness see J. Van Seters, “The Problem of Childlessness in Near Eastern Law and the Patriarchs of Israel,” JBL 87 (1968): 401-8.

[16:1]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew term שִׁפְחָה (shifkhah, translated “servant” here and in vv. 2, 3, 5, 6, and 8) refers to a menial female servant.

[16:1]  ¹⁰ sn The passage records the birth of Ishmael to Abram through an Egyptian woman. The story illustrates the limits of Abram’s faith as he tries to obtain a son through social custom. The barrenness of Sarai poses a challenge to Abram’s faith, just as the famine did in chap. 12. As in chap. 12, an Egyptian figures prominently. (Perhaps Hagar was obtained as a slave during Abram’s stay in Egypt.)

[8:6]  ¹¹ tn The introductory verbal form וַיְהִי (vayÿhi), traditionally rendered “and it came to pass,” serves as a temporal indicator and has not been translated here.

[8:6]  ¹² tn Heb “opened the window in the ark which he had made.” The perfect tense (“had made”) refers to action preceding the opening of the window, and is therefore rendered as a past perfect. Since in English “had made” could refer to either the ark or the window, the order of the phrases was reversed in the translation to clarify that the window is the referent.

[29:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “and he said to them, ‘Is there peace to him?’”

[29:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “peace.”