Genesis 12:16

12:16 and he did treat Abram well ¹  on account of her. Abram received ²  sheep and cattle, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.

Genesis 21:9

21:9 But Sarah noticed ³  the son of Hagar the Egyptian – the son whom Hagar had borne to Abraham – mocking. ⁴ 

Genesis 21:21

21:21 He lived in the wilderness of Paran. ⁵  His mother found a wife for him from the land of Egypt. ⁶ 

[12:16]  ¹ sn He did treat Abram well. The construction of the parenthetical disjunctive clause, beginning with the conjunction on the prepositional phrase, draws attention to the irony of the story. Abram wanted Sarai to lie “so that it would go well” with him. Though he lost Sarai to Pharaoh, it did go well for him – he received a lavish bride price. See also G. W. Coats, “Despoiling the Egyptians,” VT 18 (1968): 450-57.

[12:16]  ² tn Heb “and there was to him.”

[21:9]  ³ tn Heb “saw.”

[21:9]  ⁴ tn The Piel participle used here is from the same root as the name “Isaac.” In the Piel stem the verb means “to jest; to make sport of; to play with,” not simply “to laugh,” which is the meaning of the verb in the Qal stem. What exactly Ishmael was doing is not clear. Interpreters have generally concluded that the boy was either (1) mocking Isaac (cf. NASB, NIV, NLT) or (2) merely playing with Isaac as if on equal footing (cf. NAB, NRSV). In either case Sarah saw it as a threat. The same participial form was used in Gen 19:14 to describe how some in Lot’s family viewed his attempt to warn them of impending doom. It also appears later in Gen 39:14, 17, where Potiphar accuses Joseph of mocking them.

[21:21]  ⁵ sn The wilderness of Paran is an area in the east central region of the Sinai peninsula, northeast from the traditional site of Mt. Sinai and with the Arabah and the Gulf of Aqaba as its eastern border.

[21:21]  ⁶ tn Heb “And his mother took for him a wife from the land of Egypt.”