Genesis 16:1

Summary

The verse states that Sarai, wife of Abram, had not borne him children, and that she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar. It introduces both Sarai's childlessness and Hagar's presence and origin as background for the narrative that follows.

Key words

• yaldah ("she had borne children", H3205) — qal perfect, third person feminine singular, marking a completed action with negative lo ("not", H3808) preceding it, indicating a state that had persisted up to the narrative moment.
• 'eshet ("wife of", H0802H) — feminine singular construct noun, linking Sarai directly to Abram in a possessive-type relationship ("wife of Abram").
• shifchah ("a maidservant", H8198) — feminine singular noun, absolute (not construct), designating Hagar's social role.
• mitzrit ("Egyptian", H4713) — gentilic adjective, feminine singular, specifying the ethnic origin of the shifchah.
• shemah ("her name", H8034) — masculine singular noun in construct with the pronominal suffix -h ("her", H9024), forming "her name," introducing the naming clause.

What the text says

The verse divides into two linked clauses joined by ve ("and", H9002). The first clause centers on the verb yaldah ("she had borne children", H3205), a qal perfect verb negated by lo ("not", H3808). The perfect aspect here expresses a completed situation extending into the narrative present — Sarai's childless state is presented as an established fact rather than a single past event. The subject is identified through the construct phrase 'eshet 'Avram ("wife of Abram", H0802H + H0087), which ties Sarai's identity to her relationship with Abram rather than naming her independently in this clause.

The second clause shifts to Hagar. The construction ve-lah ("and to her", H9002 + H9005 + H9034) uses the preposition le- with a pronominal suffix to express possession — literally "and to her [belonged] a maidservant," a common Hebrew way of expressing "she had." The maidservant is qualified by mitzrit ("Egyptian", H4713), a gentilic adjective agreeing in gender and number with shifchah ("a maidservant", H8198). The final clause, u-shemah Hagar ("and her name [was] Hagar", H9002 + H8034 + H9024 + H1904), uses the construct noun shem with a suffix to introduce the proper name, a standard naming formula in the Hebrew text.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders shifchah ("a maidservant", H8198) as παιδίσκη and structures the sentence with ἦν δὲ αὐτῇ ("but she had"), matching the Hebrew possessive construction with lah ("to her", H9005+H9034). The Vulgate uses "habens ancillam" ("having a maidservant"), a participial construction differing syntactically from both the Hebrew perfect-based clause and the LXX's finite verb ἦν, though the semantic content of possession is preserved across all three versions.