Genesis 16:6

_BUT ABRAM SAID UNTO SARAI, BEHOLD, THY MAID IS IN THY HAND; DO TO HER AS IT PLEASETH THEE. AND WHEN SARAI DEALT HARDLY WITH HER, SHE FLED FROM HER FACE._ Abram said ... Behold, thy maid is in thy hand. Abram being a man of peace, as well as affectionately disposed toward his wife, left her to settle these broils in her own way. In all households where concubinage exists, the principal wife retains her supreme authority over the inferior ones; and in cases where a slave is brought into the relation with her master that Hagar held to Abram, the maid-servant remains in her former position unchanged; or although some more attentions may be paid to her, she is as much subject to the absolute control of her mistress as before. Sarai, left by Abram to act at discretion, exerted her full authority. AND ... SARAI DEALT HARDLY WITH HER - [Hebrew, _ WATª`ANEHAA_ (H6031), oppressed, afflicted, or...

6._Behold, thy maid is in thy hand_. The greatness of Abram’s humanity and modesty appears from his answer. He does not quarrel with his wife; and though he has the best cause, yet he does not pertinaciously defend it, but voluntarily dismisses the wife who had been given him. In short, for the sake of restoring peace, he does violence to his feelings, both as a husband, and a father. For, in leaving Hagar to the will of her enraged mistress, he does not treat her as his wife; he also, in a certain way, undervalues that object of his hope which was conceived in her womb. And it is not to be doubted that he was thus calm and placid in bearing the vehemence of his wife; because, throughout her whole life, he had found her to be obedient. Still it was a great excellence, to restrain his temper under an indignity so great. It may, however, here be asked, how it was that his care for the bles...

4-6 Abram's unhappy marriage to Hagar very soon made a great deal of mischief. We may thank ourselves for the guilt and grief that follow us, when we go out of the way of our duty. See it in this case, Passionate people often quarrel with others, for things of which they themselves must bear the blame. Sarai had given her maid to Abram, yet she cries out, My wrong be upon thee. That is never said wisely, which pride and anger put into our mouths. Those are not always in the right, who are most loud and forward in appealing to God: such rash and bold imprecations commonly speak guilt and a bad cause. Hagar forgot that she herself had first given the provocation, by despising her mistress. Those that suffer for their faults, ought to bear it patiently, 1 Peter 2:20....

Verse Genesis 16:6. _SARAH DEALT HARDLY WITH HER_] תאנה _teanneha, she_ _afflicted her_; the term implying _stripes_ and _hard usage_, to _bring down_ the _body_ and _humble_ the _mind_. If the slave was to blame in this business the mistress is not less liable to censure. _She_ alone had brought her into those circumstances, in which it was natural for her to value herself beyond her mistress....

- The Birth of Ishmael 1. הנר _hāgār_, Hagar, “flight.” Hejrah, the flight of Muhammed. 7. מלאך _mal'ak_ “messenger, angel.” A deputy commissioned to discharge a certain duty for the principal whom he represents. As the most usual task is that of bearing messages, commands, or tidings, he is commonly called a “messenger” ἄγγελος _angelos_). The word is therefore a term of office, and does not further distinguish the office-bearer than as an intelligent being. Hence, a מלאך _mal'ak_ may be a man deputed by a man Genesis 32:3; Job 1:14, or by God...

EXPOSITION GENESIS 16:1 NOW SARAI ABRAM'S WIFE BARE HIM NO CHILDREN (literally, _bare not to him, _notwithstanding the promise; the barrenness of Sarai being introduced as the point of departure for the ensuing narrative, and emphasized as the cause or occasion of the subsequent transaction): AND SHE HAD—literally, _to her _(there was)—AN HANDMAID, AN EGYPTIAN (obtained probably while in the house of Pharaoh (Genesis 12:16)—whose name was HAGAR_—_"_flight_,"_ _from _hagar_, to flee. Cf. Hegirah, the flight of Mahomet. Not her original designation, but given to her afterwards, either because of her flight from Egypt (Ambrose, Wordsworth), or because of her escape

BUT ABRAM SAID UNTO SARAI,.... In a meek, mild and gentle manner: BEHOLD, THY MAID [IS] IN THINE HAND; though Hagar was Abram's secondary wife he still considers her as Sarai's maid, and as subject to her, and allows her to exercise authority over her; for he still retained the same love and affection for Sarai, his first and lawful wife, and showed the same respect he ever did, and supported her in her honour and dignity: DO TO HER AS IT PLEASETH THEE: not giving her liberty to take away her life, nor even to use her cruelly, but to deal with her as a mistress might lawfully do with a servant, or however exercise that power which a first wife had over a second: perhaps Abram, in complaisance to Sarai, gave her too large a commission, and left it too much in her power to distress Hagar; and it might have been more correct to have heard both sides, and judged between them, and used his...

CHAPTER 16 ABRAHAM AND HAGAR _ 1. Sarai's suggestion (Genesis 16:1)_ 2. Abram's action (Genesis 16:4) 3. Sarai and Hagar (Genesis 16:5) 4. Hagar in the wilderness (Genesis 16:7) 5. The birth of Ishmael announced (Genesis 16:10) 6. Ishmael born (Genesis 16:15) The fifteenth chapter may be called Abram's faith chapter. The sixteenth is the chapter of unbelief. It was impatience which forced Sarai and Abram to act f

Sarah has no children, so she hits on a plan of which we have other examples (Genesis 30:3; Genesis 30:9). She hands over Hagar to Abraham, that the maid may compensate for the deficiency of her mistress. The maid is the wife's peculiar property, and therefore not, like ordinary slaves, at the master's disposal. Nor, presumably, would Abraham's child by one of his slaves have been a legitimate son. It is through the connexion between mistress and maid that Hagar's child can be reckoned as Sarah's. Hagar succeeds, and shows in her bearing the contempt of an Eastern woman for the barren. Stung by her maid's insolence, Sarah turns upon Abraham and hotly demands redress for a wrong she had herself invited. He meekly abandons the maid, who had now a claim on his protection, to the vindictiveness of his unreasonable wife, w

DEALT HARDLY. Hebrew afflicted her. The Code of Khammurabi (119) forbade her being sold. Sarah could only lay tasks on her. See App-15....