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The Pulpit Commentary
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 16:1-6
The maid, the mistress, and the master. I. HAGAR'S SINS. 1. Pride. 2. Contempt. 3. Insubordination. 4. Flight. II. SARAI'S FAULTS. 1. Tempting her husband. 2. Excusing herself. 3. Appealing to God. 4. Afflicting her ser…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 16:2
And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the Lord hath restrained us from bearing. Literally, hath shut me up (i.e. my womb, Genesis 20:18; συνέκλεισέ με, LXX.) from bearing. Her advancing age was rendering this every d…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 16:3
Crooked ways, or marrying with Hagar. I. THE SPECIOUS PROPOSAL. 1. The author of it; Sarai, the wife of Abram, a daughter of the faith, the mistress of a household. To the first, the suggestion referred to in the narrat…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 16:3
And Sarai Abram's wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ton years in the land of Canaan (i.e. in his eighty-fifth, and her seventy-fifth year; a note of time introduced, probably, to account for t…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 16:4
And he went in unto Hagar. בּוֹא אֶל־, a linguistic peculiarity of the Jehovist, occurring Genesis 29:21, Genesis 29:30; Genesis 30:3, Genesis 30:4; Genesis 38:2, Genesis 38:9, Genesis 38:16 (Vaihinger, Davidson); but b…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 16:5
And Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be upon thee. Ἀδικοῦμαι ἐκ σοῦ (LXX. ); indue agis contra me (Vulgate); My injury is upon thee, i.e. thou art the cause of it (Jonathan, Rosenmüller, Ainsworth, Clarke, 'Speaker's…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 16:6
But Abram said unto Sarai, Behold, thy maid is in thy hand (regarding her still as one of Sarai's servants, though elevated to the rank of secondary wife to himself); do to her as it pleaseth thee. Literally, the good i…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 16:7
Wells in the wilderness. 1. God provides them for the rest and refreshment of pilgrims. 2. God visits them to meet with wear), and afflicted pilgrims. 3. God dispenses from them life and hope to all repenting and believ…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 16:7-16
EXPOSITION
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 16:7
And the angel of the Lord. Maleach Jehovah, elsewhere styled Maleach Elohim (Genesis 21:17; Genesis 31:11); supposed but wrongly to be a creature angel, for the reasons chiefly 1. The Maleach Jehovah explicitly identifi…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 16:7-13
Glimpses of the Godhead. 1. Divine condescension. God visits men as the angel visited Hagar. 2. Divine omniscience. God knows men as the angel knew Hagar. 3. Divine compassion. God pities and comforts men as the angel d…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 16:7
The capture of the runaway, or Hagar and the angel of the Lord. I. THE FUGITIVE ARRESTED. 1. The agent of her capture. The angel of Jehovah (vide Exposition), whose appearance to Hagar at this particular juncture was do…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 16:8
And he said, Hagar, Sarai's maid. Declining to recognize her marriage with the patriarch, the angel reminds her of her original position as a bondwoman, from which liberty was not to be obtained by flight, but by manumi…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 16:8
God pleading with wanderers. "Hagar, Sarai's maid, whence camest thou? and whither wilt thou go?" She knew not, cared not. Undisciplined, smarting under effects of her own willfulness (Genesis 16:4), she thought only of…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 16:9
And the angel of the Lord said unto her—as Paul afterwards practically said to Onesimus, the runaway slave of Philemon (vide Philippians 12)—return to thy mistress, and submit thyself—the verb here employed is the same…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 16:10
And the angel of the Lord said unto her (after duty, promise), I will multiply thy seed exceedingly (literally, multiplying I will multiply thy seed; language altogether inappropriate in the lips of a creature), that (l…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 16:11
And the angel of the Lord said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and thou shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael. "God shall hear," or, "Whom God hears," the first instance of the naming of a child befor…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 16:12
And he will be a wild man. Literally, a wild ass (of a) man; the פֶּרֶא, snarler, being so called from its swiftness of foot (cf. Job 39:5-8), and aptly depicting "the Bedouin's boundless love of freedom as he rides abo…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 16:13
And she called the name—not invoked the name (Chaldee, Lapide), though occasionally קָרָא שֵׁם has the same import as קָרָא בִשֵׁס (vide Deuteronomy 32:3)—of the Lord—Jehovah, thus identifying the Maleach Jehovah with J…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 16:14
Wherefore the well was called—in all likelihood first by Hagar—Beer-lahai-roi, or the well of him that liveth and seeth me (A.V.); but either
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 16:15
And Hagar bare Abram a son: and Abram called his son's name—a peculiarity of the Elohist to assign the naming of a child to the father (Knobel); but the present chapter is usually ascribed to the Jehovist, while the ins…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 16:16
And Abram was fourscore and six years old, when Hagar bare Ishmael to Abram. HOMILETICS
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 17:1-14
EXPOSITION
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 17:1
And when Abram was ninety years old and nine—consequently an interval of thirteen years had elapsed since the birth of Ishmael; the long delay on the part of God being probably designed as chastisement for Abram's secon…