Genesis 16:4

And he slept with Hagar, and she conceived. But when Hagar realized that she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.

BSB

Parallel translations

4 additional translations

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KJV

And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived: and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes.

ASV

And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived: and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes.

YLT

and he goeth in unto Hagar, and she conceiveth, and she seeth that she hath conceived, and her mistress is lightly esteemed in her eyes.

DBT

And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was lightly esteemed in her eyes.

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Commentary voices

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Voices4

On this verse

And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived,.... The formality of the marriage being over, he enjoyed her as his wife, and she immediately conceived by him: and when she saw that she had conceived; when she perceived that she was with child: her mistress was despised in her eyes; she thought herself above her, and treated her as her inferior, with contempt, and reproached her for her barrenness, as Peninnah did Hannah, 1Sa 1:6; and it was the more ungrateful, as it was at the motion of her mistress that she was given to Abram for wife.

John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)reformed

Related commentary

It was not because he was ablaze with the heat of some unbridled passion, not because he was overcome by the charm of seductive beauty that Abraham gave preference to a relationship with a slave girl over the conjugal bed, but through a desire to procure a posterity and to enlarge his progeny. After the flood the human race was still numerically sparse. Hence it was also a matter of moral obligation that no one be seen to have failed to render the debt to nature.

Ambrose of Milan· On Abraham, 397patristic

Sarai falls upon Abram, and very unjustly charges him with the injury, suspecting that he countenanced Hagar's insolence: and as one not willing to hear what Abram had to say she rashly appeals to God. The Lord judge between me and thee, as if Abram had refused to right her. When passion is upon the throne, reason is out of doors, and is neither heard nor spoken.

John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765evangelical

It is a hard thing to bear honour aright. We justly suffer by those whom we have sinfully indulged, and it is a righteous thing with God to make those instruments of our trouble whom we have made instruments of our sin, and to ensnare us in our own evil counsels: this stone will return upon him that rolleth it.

Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710puritan

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Cross-references

9 linked verses

The verses this one reaches9

Proverbs 30:23
an unloved woman who marries, and a maidservant who supplants her mistress.
2 Samuel 6:16
As the ark of the LORD was entering the City of David, Saul’s daughter Michal looked down from a window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, and she despised him in her heart.
Genesis 19:31
One day the older daughter said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man in the land to sleep with us, as is the custom over all the earth.
1 Timothy 6:2
Those who have believing masters should not show disrespect because they are brothers, but should serve them all the more, since those receiving their good service are beloved believers. Teach and encourage these principles.
Proverbs 30:20–21
This is the way of an adulteress: She eats and wipes her mouth and says, ‘I have done nothing wrong.’
1 Corinthians 4:6
Brothers, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us not to go beyond what is written. Then you will not take pride in one man over another.
1 Corinthians 13:4–5
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
1 Samuel 1:6–8
Because the LORD had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival would provoke her and taunt her viciously.
Genesis 16:8
“Hagar, servant of Sarai,” he said, “where have you come from, and where are you going?” “I am running away from my mistress Sarai,” she replied.

Cross-references

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The quotation web

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Around this verse

Word doors

Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread — the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.

Who & where

PersonPatriarchsHagarSarah's Egyptian servant and mother of Ishmael; the first person to name God — “Thou God seest me” (El Roi, 16:13).

About this book

The Creation of Light — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain

Genesis — The book of beginnings. Creation, fall, flood, covenant, election, providence — eleven generational seams stitch one unbroken story from heaven-and-earth to a coffin in Egypt.

Canon: Old Testament
Author: Moses — by traditional attribution; the book is the first of the Pentateuch
Date: Composed c. 15th–13th century BC; draws on older patriarchal sources (the toledoth framework is internal)

Where the connections lead

Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first — the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.

Through
2 Samuel 6:16
As the ark of the LORD was entering the City of David, Saul’s daughter Michal looked down from a window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, and she despised him…
leads to
- 1 Corinthians 2:14
  The natural man does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
- 1 Chronicles 15:29
  As the ark of the covenant of the LORD was entering the City of David, Saul’s daughter Michal looked down from a window and saw King David dancing and celebrating, and she despised him…
- 2 Samuel 3:14
  Then David sent messengers to say to Ish-bosheth son of Saul, “Give me back my wife, Michal, whom I betrothed to myself for a hundred Philistine foreskins.”
Through
1 Corinthians 4:6
Brothers, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us not to go beyond what is written. Then you will not take pride in…
leads to
- 2 Corinthians 11:4
  For if someone comes and proclaims a Jesus other than the One we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit than the One you received, or a different gospel than the one you…
- 2 Corinthians 12:19
  Have you been thinking all along that we were making a defense to you? We speak before God in Christ, and all of this, beloved, is to build you up.
- 2 Corinthians 12:6
  Even if I wanted to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will credit me with more than he sees in…
- Romans 12:3
  For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but think of yourself with sober judgment, according to the measure…
Through
Proverbs 30:23
an unloved woman who marries, and a maidservant who supplants her mistress.
leads to
- Proverbs 21:19
  Better to live in the desert than with a contentious and ill-tempered wife.

The whole web at once: see the Arc.

Where the connections lead

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Continue: Genesis 16 →