Bible Strands
Genesis 16:1
Now Abram’s wife Sarai had borne him no children, but she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The narrator states the household condition of Abram and Sarai before any dialogue occurs. The moment captures the factual gap between the divine promise and the current domestic reality.
The words — יָלְדָ֖ה (Yal.dah) means "she had borne children," and שִׁפְחָ֥ה (shif.Chah) means "a maidservant." These terms establish biological delay and social status within the same clause.
The thread — The absence of offspring reappears in Genesis 15:2 when Abram questions his heir, and the household composition expands in Genesis 12:16. The figures later serve as structural illustrations in Galatians 4:24 regarding two covenants.
Why it lands — The verse records a condition without moral judgment or divine intervention. It requires the reader to observe how narrative setup creates the conditions for human initiative.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Now Sarai Abram’s wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.
Cross-references
- Galatians 4:24 These things serve as illustrations, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children into slavery: This is Hagar.
- Genesis 12:16 He treated Abram well on her account, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, menservants and maidservants, and camels.
- Genesis 15:2 But Abram replied, “O Lord GOD, what can You give me, since I remain childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”
- Genesis 21:9 But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking her son,
- Genesis 11:30 But Sarai was barren; she had no children.
- Genesis 21:12 But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed about the boy and your maidservant. Listen to everything that Sarah tells you, for through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.
- Genesis 21:21 And while he was dwelling in the Wilderness of Paran, his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
- Genesis 25:21 Later, Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren. And the LORD heard his prayer, and his wife Rebekah conceived.
- Judges 13:2 Now there was a man from Zorah named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, whose wife was barren and had no children.
- Luke 1:7 But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well along in years.