Bible Strands
Genesis 16:2
So Sarai said to Abram, “Look now, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Please go to my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Sarai addresses Abram regarding their prolonged childlessness and her Egyptian maidservant Hagar, following their decade in Canaan. Abram then complies with her directive. The words — The Hebrew עֲצָרַ֤/נִי ('a.tza.Ra./ni) literally means "he has restrained me," describing Yahweh's action in preventing Sarai from bearing children. The thread — The pattern of a husband heeding his wife's voice echoes the warning in Genesis 3:17, while the promise of offspring is later confirmed in Genesis 18:10. Why it lands — The text states Sarai proposes using her maidservant to build a family and Abram listens; it asks the reader to note how human initiative operates when divine timing remains unfulfilled.
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
And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the Lord hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai.
Cross-references
- Genesis 3:17 And to Adam He said: “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat, cursed is the ground because of you; through toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
- Genesis 18:10 Then the LORD said, “I will surely return to you at this time next year, and your wife Sarah will have a son!” Now Sarah was behind him, listening at the entrance to the tent.
- Exodus 21:4 If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and only the man shall go free.
- Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field that the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’”
- Genesis 3:12 And the man answered, “The woman whom You gave me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
- Genesis 17:16 And I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will descend from her.”
- Genesis 20:18 for on account of Abraham’s wife Sarah, the LORD had completely closed all the wombs in Abimelech’s household.
- 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.
- Genesis 30:2 Jacob became angry with Rachel and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld children from you?”
- Genesis 30:9 When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she gave her servant Zilpah to Jacob as a wife.