Genesis 16:9 - Printer Friendly

ESV: The angel of the LORD said to her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her.”

NIV: Then the angel of the LORD told her, 'Go back to your mistress and submit to her.'

NASB: So the angel of the Lord said to her, 'Return to your mistress, and submit to her authority.'

CSB: The angel of the Lord said to her, "Go back to your mistress and submit to her authority."

NLT: The angel of the Lord said to her, 'Return to your mistress, and submit to her authority.'

KJV: And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands.

NKJV: The Angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hand.”

The angel of the Lord, apparently the Lord Himself (Genesis 16:10, 13), has "found" Hagar alone and vulnerable along the road to Egypt. She is on the run from the harsh mistreatment of Sarai, and she is pregnant with Abram's first child. This pregnancy and Hagar's resulting contempt are the reason why Sarai has begun to mistreat Hagar (Genesis 16:6). When Hagar became contemptuous, Sarai demanded that Abram reassert the master-servant relationship between her and Hagar. Abram does this, essentially telling Sarai to do with Hagar as she pleases, as with any other servant.

First, the angel of the Lord tells Hagar to return to Sarai and to submit to her. In the following verses, he will give her a surprising glimpse into her unborn son's future. The nation who comes from this son—Ishmael—will be influential, but marked by perpetual conflict. Abram and Sarai's attempt to hurry God's promises will have drastic consequences for human history.

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.

Accessed 5/5/2024 1:06:19 PM