Bible Strands
Genesis 21:6
Then Sarah said, “God has made me laugh, and everyone who hears of this will laugh with me.”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Sarah speaks in the immediate aftermath of Isaac's birth to a hundred-year-old Abraham (v.5), before she adds her remark about nursing (v.7). No addressee is named; it is a declarative statement.
The words — צְחֹק (tsechok, "laughter") and יִצְחַק (yitzchak, "he will laugh") share the root צחק, binding the child's name to the act of laughing. The verb עָשָׂה ('asah, "he has made") attributes the laughter to God as its author.
The thread — Genesis 17:17 records Abraham's private laughter at the same promise; Isaiah 54:1 and Psalms 126:2 extend the motif to public, communal joy over the reversal of barrenness.
Why it lands — The verse makes God's faithfulness a public fact: the laughter belongs not only to Sarah but to "everyone who hears." It asks the reader to hold that divine promise outlasts human impossibility and becomes visible to a community.
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 Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me.
Cross-references
- Psalms 126:2 Then our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with shouts of joy. Then it was said among the nations, “The LORD has done great things for them.”
- Isaiah 54:1 “Shout for joy, O barren woman, who bears no children; break forth in song and cry aloud, you who have never travailed; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband,” says the LORD.
- Genesis 17:17 Abraham fell facedown. Then he laughed and said to himself, “Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah give birth at the age of ninety?”
- Luke 1:58 Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they rejoiced with her.
- Psalms 113:9 He settles the barren woman in her home as a joyful mother to her children. Hallelujah!
- Isaiah 49:21 Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who has begotten these for me? I was bereaved and barren; I was exiled and rejected. So who has reared them? Look, I was left all alone, so where did they come from?’”
- Luke 1:14 He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice at his birth,
- Luke 1:46 Then Mary said: “My soul magnifies the Lord,
- Galatians 4:27 For it is written: “Rejoice, O barren woman, who bears no children; break forth and cry aloud, you who have never travailed; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.”
- Romans 12:15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.