Genesis 16:6

Summary

Abram responds to Sarai by placing her maidservant fully under her authority, telling her to act as she sees fit. Sarai then subjects the maidservant to harsh treatment, and the maidservant flees from her presence.

Key words

• shifchatekh ("your maidservant", H8198) — feminine singular construct noun with second-person feminine suffix; identifies Hagar by her subordinate status relative to Sarai.
• be-yadekh ("in your hand", H3027H) — noun in construct with pronominal suffix, an idiom expressing full control or authority given to Sarai over the maidservant.
• ha-tov be-eynayikh ("the good in your eyes", H2896A / H5869I) — adjective plus a construct noun phrase (literally "in your eyes," dual form referring to the two eyes) forming an idiom for "whatever you judge best."
• te'aneha ("she afflicted her", H6031B) — piel (intensive) stem, narrative form; the piel intensifies the action beyond simple affliction, indicating a deliberate, forceful mistreatment.
• tivrach ("she fled", H1272) — qal narrative form, third-person feminine; marks the immediate narrative consequence of the affliction.

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative formula va-yomer ("and he said", H0559) introducing Abram's direct speech to Sarai. His statement uses the interjection hinneh ("there!", H2009) to draw attention, followed by the construct phrase shifchatekh be-yadekh — literally "your maidservant [is] in your hand" — an idiom placing the maidservant under Sarai's authority without further qualification. The imperative asi-lah ha-tov be-eynayikh ("do to her the good in your eyes") repeats this grant of discretion using a common Hebrew idiom built on the noun "eyes" (eynayikh, dual construct form), meaning "whatever you judge fit," rather than a specific instruction.

The second half of the verse shifts to narrative action with two consecutive vav-narrative verbs: te'aneha ("she afflicted her") and tivrach ("she fled"). The verb te'aneha is in the piel stem, a verbal pattern that in Hebrew often marks intensive or forceful action compared to the simple (qal) stem of the same root; this grammatical detail is not distinguishable in translations that render it simply as "afflicted" or "treated harshly." The maidservant's response, tivrach mi-paneha ("she fled from her presence/face"), uses the construct noun panim ("face", H6440G) in the idiomatic sense of "from her presence," describing physical departure from Sarai's proximity.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders shifchatekh as paidiske ("young female servant") and adds the phrase enantion sou ("before you"), an expansion not present in the Hebrew construct phrase be-yadekh ("in your hand"). The Vulgate's in manu tua est ("is in your hand") tracks the Hebrew idiom closely. Where the Hebrew names the maidservant only as shifchatekh ("your maidservant") without the proper name Hagar in this verse, the BSB and SBLIBRE English/Spanish translations supply "Hagar" explicitly in the second clause, a name not present in the Hebrew text of this specific verse.