Genesis16chapter 16

This chapter is heard inside the third portion of the annual cycle, in the same sitting as the call of Abram and the sign of circumcision (src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts). Hagar, the flight to the spring and the birth of Ishmael are read between the covenant of the pieces and the covenant of the flesh. The card above carries the portion and the prophetic reading set beside it.

Rashi is quoted here from the public domain Rosenbaum and Silbermann edition, and Radak from the CC-BY translation of Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash.

Radak reads the first verse by the ages of the two of them. Sarai was seventy five and Abram eighty five, and she judged that the promise of children must mean children by another woman (Radak on Genesis 16:1:1). Rashi reads the ten years of the third verse as the term the law allows. A wife who has borne no child in ten years is the case in which a man takes another (Rashi on Genesis 16:3:2).

Rashi reads the words of Sarai in the second verse as a saying about children. A person without children is unsteady, and a person with them is built up (Rashi on Genesis 16:2:1, citing Genesis Rabbah 45:2). He reads her complaint in the fifth verse as a complaint about prayer. Abram had prayed for himself alone when he asked what God would give him, and she holds that he should have prayed for them both (Rashi on Genesis 16:5:1).

Radak reads the answer of Abram in the sixth verse as a plain ruling on standing. Hagar had been given the place of a wife by him and remained the servant of Sarai, and his own dignity was not to weigh in how she was treated (Radak on Genesis 16:6:1). He reads the spring of the seventh verse as a known well on the road to Shur, so that Hagar was going back toward Egypt (Radak on Genesis 16:7:1). On the tenth verse he explains why the angel speaks in the first person, since a messenger carries the words of the one who sent him (Radak on Genesis 16:10:1).

Ibn Ezra carries two comments on this chapter that the corpus holds by reference alone, because the licence Sefaria reports for the English version keeps the text out. They are Ibn Ezra on Genesis 16:7:1 and 16:8:1.

Rashi carries four sayings of the rabbis on this chapter, and each stands here as what they taught.

The first is on Hagar herself. Rashi reports that she was a daughter of Pharaoh, who saw what was done for Sarah in Egypt. Pharaoh said that his daughter would do better as a servant in that house than as a mistress in another (Rashi on Genesis 16:1:1, citing Genesis Rabbah 45:1).

The second is on how Sarai persuaded her. Rashi reports that she won her with kind words, saying she would be "privileged to consort with so holy a person as this" (Rashi on Genesis 16:3:1, citing Genesis Rabbah 45:3). The third follows from the conception. Rashi reports that Hagar conceived at once. She then said that Sarai could not be as righteous in private as she seemed in public. Sarai had borne nothing in all those years (Rashi on Genesis 16:4:1 and 16:4:2, citing Genesis Rabbah 45:4).

The fourth is on the spelling of one word in the fifth verse. Rashi reports the reading that Sarai turned the judgment toward Hagar, that the evil eye fell on her and that she lost the child she carried. On this reading the angel's word at the spring is a fresh promise of conception (Rashi on Genesis 16:5:2). He reports that a different angel was sent for each of the three sayings at the spring (Rashi on Genesis 16:9:1, citing Genesis Rabbah 45:7). Of the last verse he reports that the age is written to the credit of Ishmael, who raised no objection at thirteen when he was circumcised (Rashi on Genesis 16:16:1).

The corpus records forty places where the Midrash and the Talmud cite this chapter, thirty three under Midrash and seven under Talmud, with the locator for each one and no text. Bereshit Rabbah reads the first verse at 44:23 and 45:1, the second at 45:2 and 47:2, the third at 45:3 and the fourth at 45:4. It reads the sixth verse at 45:6, the seventh to the twelfth at 75:4, the tenth at 45:7 and 47:5, and the eleventh at 45:5 and 45:8. It reads the twelfth verse at 45:9 and the thirteenth at 20:6 and 45:10.

Bereshit Rabbati reads five verses in Parashat Lech Lecha, at 22, 24, 21, 33 and 23. Aggadat Bereshit reads the first verse at 37:1, the second at 52:1 and the twelfth at 73:1. Bamidbar Rabbah reads the third verse at 20:19, and the Mekhilta of Rabbi Yishmael reads the seventh at Tractate Vayehi Beshalach 5:4.

The Talmud is cited at Bava Kamma 92b:5 on the eighth verse, Meilah 17b:5 on the ninth to the eleventh, and Gittin 2a:2 on the well. The Jerusalem Talmud reads the third verse at Yevamot 6:6:3. Avot DeRabbi Natan reads the fifth verse at 34:5 and 34:6, and its second recension at 37:10.