Bible Strands
Genesis 16:3
So after he had lived in Canaan for ten years, his wife Sarai took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to Abram to be his wife.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records Sarai's action toward Abram after the couple has dwelt in Canaan for ten years. She physically transfers her Egyptian maidservant Hagar to Abram to function as a wife.
The words — וַתִּקַּח (va.ti.kach) translates literally as "and she took," marking the decisive act of transfer. הַמִּצְרִית שִׁפְחָתָהּ (ha.mitzrit shifchatah) specifies Hagar's identity as "her Egyptian maidservant," establishing her ethnic origin and subordinate household status.
The thread — This domestic arrangement parallels the later royal practice of expanding lineage through secondary wives, as seen when David takes more concubines and wives from Jerusalem (2 Samuel 5:13). The immediate narrative consequence appears in Sarai's direct accusation that the resulting conflict rests upon Abram (Genesis 16:5).
Why it lands — The text requires tracking the human mechanism deployed to address a perceived delay in divine promise, noting the direct causal link between Sarai's initiative, Abram's compliance, and the ensuing household fracture. It asks the reader to observe how familial structures are mobilized to resolve perceived spiritual impasse, without glossing over the resulting relational damage.
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 Abram’s wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife.
Cross-references
- Genesis 12:4 So Abram departed, as the LORD had directed him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.
- Genesis 16:5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be upon you! I delivered my servant into your arms, and ever since she saw that she was pregnant, she has treated me with contempt. May the LORD judge between you and me.”
- 2 Samuel 5:13 After he had arrived from Hebron, David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem, and more sons and daughters were born to him.
- Genesis 25:6 But while he was still alive, Abraham gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them away from his son Isaac to the land of the east.
- Genesis 28:9 Esau went to Ishmael and married Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Abraham’s son Ishmael, in addition to the wives he already had.
- Genesis 30:4 So Rachel gave Jacob her servant Bilhah as a wife, and he slept with her,
- Genesis 30:9 When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she gave her servant Zilpah to Jacob as a wife.
- Genesis 32:22 During the night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants, and his eleven sons, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.
- Genesis 35:22 While Israel was living in that region, Reuben went in and slept with his father’s concubine Bilhah, and Israel heard about it. Jacob had twelve sons:
- Judges 19:1 Now in those days, when there was no king in Israel, a Levite who lived in the remote hill country of Ephraim took for himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah.