Genesis 11:30

11:30 But Sarai was barren; she had no children.

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 16:8

16:8 He said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?” She replied, “I’m running away from ⁷  my mistress, Sarai.”

Genesis 17:15

17:15 Then God said to Abraham, “As for your wife, you must no longer call her Sarai; ⁸  Sarah ⁹  will be her name.

Genesis 16:1-2

The Birth of Ishmael

16:1 Now Sarai, ¹⁰  Abram’s wife, had not given birth to any children, ¹¹  but she had an Egyptian servant ¹²  named Hagar. ¹³  16:2 So Sarai said to Abram, “Since ¹⁴  the Lord has prevented me from having children, have sexual relations with ¹⁵  my servant. Perhaps I can have a family by her.” ¹⁶  Abram did what ¹⁷  Sarai told him.

Genesis 12:11

12:11 As he approached ¹⁸  Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “Look, ¹⁹  I know that you are a beautiful woman. ²⁰ 

Genesis 12:17

12:17 But the Lord struck Pharaoh and his household with severe diseases ²¹  because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.

Genesis 11:29

11:29 And Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, ²²  and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah; ²³  she was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Iscah.

Genesis 11:31

11:31 Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (the son of Haran), and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and with them he set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. When they came to Haran, they settled there.

Genesis 12:5

12:5 And Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew ²⁴  Lot, and all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired ²⁵  in Haran, and they left for ²⁶  the land of Canaan. They entered the land of Canaan.

Genesis 16:3

16:3 So after Abram had lived ²⁷  in Canaan for ten years, Sarai, Abram’s wife, gave Hagar, her Egyptian servant, ²⁸  to her husband to be his wife. ²⁹ 

Genesis 16:5

16:5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “You have brought this wrong on me! ³⁰  I allowed my servant to have sexual relations with you, ³¹  but when she realized ³²  that she was pregnant, she despised me. ³³  May the Lord judge between you and me!” ³⁴ 

[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.

[16:8]  ¹ tn Heb “from the presence of.”

[17:15]  ¹ tn Heb “[As for] Sarai your wife, you must not call her name Sarai, for Sarah [will be] her name.”

[17:15]  ² sn Sarah. The name change seems to be a dialectical variation, both spellings meaning “princess” or “queen.” Like the name Abram, the name Sarai symbolized the past. The new name Sarah, like the name Abraham, would be a reminder of what God intended to do for Sarah in the future.

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

[16:1]  ² 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]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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.)

[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.”

[12:11]  ¹ tn Heb “drew near to enter.”

[12:11]  ² tn The particle הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”) is deictic here; it draws attention to the following fact.

[12:11]  ³ tn Heb “a woman beautiful of appearance are you.”

[12:17]  ¹ tn The cognate accusative adds emphasis to the verbal sentence: “he plagued with great plagues,” meaning the Lord inflicted numerous plagues, probably diseases (see Exod 15:26). The adjective “great” emphasizes that the plagues were severe and overwhelming.

[11:29]  ¹ sn The name Sarai (a variant spelling of “Sarah”) means “princess” (or “lady”). Sharratu was the name of the wife of the moon god Sin. The original name may reflect the culture out of which the patriarch was called, for the family did worship other gods in Mesopotamia.

[11:29]  ² sn The name Milcah means “Queen.” But more to the point here is the fact that Malkatu was a title for Ishtar, the daughter of the moon god. If the women were named after such titles (and there is no evidence that this was the motivation for naming the girls “Princess” or “Queen”), that would not necessarily imply anything about the faith of the two women themselves.

[12:5]  ¹ tn Heb “the son of his brother.”

[12:5]  ² tn For the semantic nuance “acquire [property]” for the verb עָשָׂה (’asah), see BDB 795 s.v. עָשָׂה.

[12:5]  ³ tn Heb “went out to go.”

[16:3]  ¹ 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]  ² tn Heb “the Egyptian, her female servant.”

[16:3]  ³ 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.

[16:5]  ¹ tn Heb “my wrong is because of you.”

[16:5]  ² tn Heb “I placed my female servant in your bosom.”

[16:5]  ³ tn Heb “saw.”

[16:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “I was despised in her eyes.” The passive verb has been translated as active for stylistic reasons. Sarai was made to feel supplanted and worthless by Hagar the servant girl.

[16:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “me and you.”