Genesis 16:5 - Printer Friendly

ESV: And Sarai said to Abram, "May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my servant to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the Lord judge between you and me!"

NIV: Then Sarai said to Abram, "You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me."

NASB: So Sarai said to Abram, 'May the wrong done to me be upon you! I put my slave woman into your arms, but when she saw that she had conceived, I was insignificant in her sight. May the Lord judge between you and me.'

CSB: Then Sarai said to Abram, "You are responsible for my suffering! I put my slave in your arms, and when she saw that she was pregnant, I became contemptible to her. May the Lord judge between me and you."

NLT: Then Sarai said to Abram, 'This is all your fault! I put my servant into your arms, but now that she’s pregnant she treats me with contempt. The Lord will show who’s wrong — you or me!'

KJV: And Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be upon thee: I have given my maid into thy bosom; and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes: the Lord judge between me and thee.

NKJV: Then Sarai said to Abram, “My wrong be upon you! I gave my maid into your embrace; and when she saw that she had conceived, I became despised in her eyes. The Lord judge between you and me.”

The plan to "help" God fulfill His promises by giving Hagar to Abram was Sarai's idea in the first place. A decade before (Genesis 16:3), God had once again promised to make Abram a great nation. This specifically included giving Abram a biological son (Genesis 15:4). For all of this time, Abram has chosen not to speed up God's timetable by marrying other wives. He has been waiting for God to fulfill the promise through Sarai, who was barren. Sarai thought the time had come to follow the custom of the day and marry her own servant to Abram to produce an heir. By that same custom, any heir would belong to Sarai as the "owner" of Hagar, her slave girl.

What Sarai seems to have failed to anticipate was Hagar growing contemptuous of her. Perhaps with good reason, Hagar would not relish the idea of giving up her child to Sarai and remaining the servant. She was Abram's wife, too, after all. Also, in that culture a woman's fertility was seen as a sign of her worth. So, Hagar's ability to conceive immediately for Abram, when Sarai had been childless for decades, could have been a source of pride or contempt for Hagar. Regardless of the reasons, or how Hagar might have acted, this contempt was not lost on Sarai.

Wounded by Hagar's attitude, Sarai complains to Abram. Her speech suggests she held him responsible for what had happened. In truth, though the plan was Sarai's idea (Genesis 16:2), Abram was responsible. He approved of the plan, he allowed it to happen, and he followed through with it. It was his responsibility to declare whether or not Sarai retained her authority over Hagar.

It's interesting to note that Sarai invokes the Lord's name in her angry plea to Abram. She calls on God to be the ultimate judge in this matter, going over Abram's head, in a sense. That was enough for Abram, as the next verse will reveal.

Genesis 16:1–16 demonstrates that God hears and sees and cares, but that He won't be rushed or manipulated into keeping His promises. Sarai and Abram attempt to receive God's promised child through their own scheme. In this case, by marrying Abram to an Egyptian servant girl. The resulting pregnancy, though, leads to harsh conflict and a surprising revelation from the Lord to Hagar. Her son Ishmael will not be the child of the promise, though he will become a great nation, and his people will live in conflict with everyone. Abram and Sarai will continue to wait for the arrival of their own son.

Sarai, tired of waiting for a child, convinces Abram to go to plan B. She gives her Egyptian slave girl to Abram as a wife, with the understanding that any children will belong to Sarai. Once Hagar is pregnant, however, conflict sets in. Sarai deals harshly with Hagar, and she flees alone into the wilderness. The Lord finds her there and commands her to return and submit to Sarai. However, the Lord also reveals that Hagar's son will have an uncountable number of offspring and that they will live in conflict with everyone. Hagar praises God as the one who sees, returns to Abram and Sarai, and Ishmael is soon born.

After formally establishing His covenant promises with Abram in the previous chapter, the Lord still has not given Abram and Sarai a child. Sarai convinces Abram to take her slave girl as a wife in hopes of getting a child that way. Abram agrees. Pregnancy and conflict soon follow. Sarai treats Hagar so harshly that the girl runs off alone into the wilderness. The Lord finds her and commands her to return and submit. He also reveals, however, that Hagar's child Ishmael will become the father of a great people who will live in conflict with everyone.

The book of Genesis establishes fundamental truths about God. Among these are His role as the Creator, His holiness, His hatred of sin, His love for mankind, and His willingness to provide for our redemption. We learn not only where mankind has come from, but why the world is in its present form. The book also presents the establishment of Israel, God's chosen people. Many of the principles given in other parts of Scripture depend on the basic ideas presented here in the book of Genesis. Within the framework of the Bible, Genesis explains the bare-bones history of the universe leading up to the captivity of Israel in Egypt, setting the stage for the book of Exodus.