Genesis 16:3 kjv

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.

Genesis 16:3 nkjv

Then Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan.

Genesis 16:3 niv

So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife.

Genesis 16:3 esv

So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife.

Genesis 16:3 nlt

So Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian servant and gave her to Abram as a wife. (This happened ten years after Abram had settled in the land of Canaan.)

Genesis 16 verses

Genesis 16 3 Meaning

Genesis 16:3 details Sarai's initiative to secure an heir for Abram by giving her Egyptian servant, Hagar, to him as a wife. This action took place after Abram had resided in the land of Canaan for ten years, indicating a period of waiting without the fulfillment of God's promise of a natural heir from Abram and Sarai. It reflects a human attempt to achieve a divine promise through culturally accepted means, outside of God's revealed timing and method.

Genesis 16 3 Context

Genesis 16:3 is situated within the narrative of God's covenant with Abram (later Abraham) and His promise to make him a great nation. Despite the Lord's clear affirmations of countless offspring in Gen 12 and Gen 15, ten years had passed since Abram entered Canaan, and Sarai remained barren. This prolonged delay, coupled with the immense cultural pressure for a family line to continue and produce an heir (especially for the head of a tribe), led Sarai to take matters into her own hands.

In ancient Near Eastern cultures, particularly evident in documents like the Nuzi tablets (a collection of 15th-century BC Hurrian texts from Mesopotamia), it was a common practice for a barren wife to provide her husband with a slave-girl (amtu) as a secondary wife or surrogate mother to bear children on her behalf. These children would then be legally considered the children of the primary wife. This practice, while culturally accepted, reflects human attempts to control destiny and bypass divine methods, a deviation from the perfect will of God who had promised to provide an heir directly through Sarai. This specific action marks a critical turning point in the Abrahamic narrative, setting the stage for domestic strife and long-term conflict between the descendants of Isaac and Ishmael.

Genesis 16 3 Word analysis

• So Sarai: The use of "So" (וַתִּקַּח wattiqqaḥ - "and she took") highlights the direct consequence or response to the ten years of waiting and likely, continued barrenness mentioned earlier. Sarai (שָׂרַי), meaning "My Princess," indicates her noble status as Abram's chief wife. The emphasis is on her initiative; she is the active agent.
• Abram's wife: Reaffirms her primary marital relationship and position within the household. Her actions significantly impact Abram.
• took Hagar: "Took" (וַתִּקַּח wattiqqaḥ) indicates a deliberate and purposeful action, suggesting ownership and control. Hagar (הָגָר) is an Egyptian, signifying an outsider, potentially highlighting a mixed household composition. Her name might relate to "flight" or "stranger," prefiguring her later experiences.
• her Egyptian servant: Hagar's status as a "servant" (ʾāmāh) defines her position of servitude and dependence. That she is "Egyptian" links her to the household's earlier sojourn in Egypt (Gen 12:10), a place often associated with reliance on human means rather than God's provision. Her racial and social background contrasts with the lineage God promised to create through Abram.
• and gave her: Again, Sarai is the actor, transferring Hagar from her own service to Abram as a wife, underscoring the legal and social dimension of the transaction from Sarai's perspective.
• to her husband Abram: The clear recipient of Hagar. Abram's role here is passive; he accepts what Sarai proposes, indicating a reliance on her strategy rather than on waiting for God.
• as a wife: The Hebrew word ʾishshah (אִשָּׁה) typically means "woman" or "wife." In this cultural context, particularly against the backdrop of ancient Near Eastern legal codes (like those from Nuzi), giving a slave-girl "as a wife" to bear children meant she legally produced offspring for the principal wife, and not primarily for the male. She would often have a secondary status, sometimes translated as "concubine," distinct from the primary wife, yet her offspring would have legal rights within the family, especially regarding inheritance if the principal wife remained childless. This demonstrates the culturally accepted means Sarai chose.
• after Abram had lived ten years: This specific timeframe emphasizes the length of the waiting period and highlights human impatience. Ten years is a significant duration, marking a point where human expectation might begin to wane and trust tested, leading to intervention. This also likely puts Abram and Sarai well into their older years.
• in the land of Canaan: The geographical location reinforces the unfulfilled promise of descendants in that very land (Gen 12:7; 13:15), further emphasizing the delay and the perceived need for human action.

Genesis 16 3 Bonus section

The Nuzi tablets reveal specific provisions concerning the giving of a slave-girl (an amtu) to a husband by a barren wife. Often, contracts stipulated that if the primary wife failed to bear children, she was obliged to provide a slave-girl; however, if the primary wife then became pregnant, the children of the slave-girl could not displace the heir born from the primary wife. In Genesis 16, the contract aspect isn't explicitly mentioned, but the underlying cultural norm is clear: a slave-girl was given as a "wife" primarily to produce an heir for the family line, particularly for the barren chief wife. This also provides context for Sarai's harshness towards Hagar later (Gen 16:6), as a primary wife held considerable authority over a surrogate maidservant, and Hagar's contempt for Sarai would have been a direct breach of this social hierarchy, perhaps even a breach of a pre-nuptial agreement, which might have stated that should the surrogate maid-wife give birth, she would remain subservient and respectful to the principal wife. Abram's passive acceptance is also notable; he is not portrayed as consulting God but simply agrees to Sarai's plan. This lack of active inquiry and trust sets a precedent for many later trials of faith.

Genesis 16 3 Commentary

Genesis 16:3 encapsulates a moment of significant human failure to trust God's promises fully. Despite divine assurances that Abram would have a vast lineage, a decade of barrenness led Sarai to implement a culturally accepted solution that ultimately violated God's intended method for their family. This act was not born of malice but out of human impatience, anxiety over perceived barrenness, and an attempt to "help" God fulfill His word. Sarai's provision of Hagar "as a wife" for Abram, though aligned with societal customs for ensuring an heir from a barren wife (as reflected in Nuzi texts), fundamentally represented a departure from waiting on God's supernatural intervention for the promised seed.

This seemingly practical decision, made independently of divine counsel, immediately led to bitterness and conflict within the family, manifesting in Hagar's despising Sarai, Sarai's mistreatment of Hagar, and the birth of Ishmael, a wild-donkey of a man whose descendants would remain in contention. The ripple effects of this single decision extended across generations, establishing a pattern of human attempts to secure blessings that are meant to come by divine means and patience. It underscores a timeless spiritual principle: God's timing is perfect, and human shortcuts often yield undesirable, even tragic, consequences. True faith means not just believing in God's promises, but trusting His methods and His timetable, even when they seem long and unclear from a human perspective. The lesson remains poignant: patience and full reliance on God are crucial over proactive, albeit culturally justified, human solutions.