Genesis 16:9

9 So the angel of the LORD told her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her authority.”

Genesis 16:9 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 16:9

And the angel of the Lord said unto her
The same angel; though Jarchi thinks that one angel after another was sent, and that at every speech there was a fresh angel; and because this phrase is repeated again and again, some of the Rabbins have fancied there were four angels F18, and others five, but without any reason:

return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands;
go back to her, humble thyself before her, acknowledge thy fault, enter into her service again, and be subject to her; do her work and business, bear her corrections and chastisements; and "suffer thyself to be afflicted" {s}, by her, as the word may be rendered; take all patiently from her, which will be much more to thy profit and advantage than to pursue the course thou art in: and the more to encourage her to take his advice, he promises the following things, ( Genesis 16:10-12 ) .


FOOTNOTES:

F18 Bereshit Rabba, ut supra. (sect. 45. fol. 41. 1.)
F19 (yneth) "te patere affligi", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "quid si, patere te affligi?" Drusius.

Genesis 16:9 In-Context

7 Now the angel of the LORD found Hagar by a spring of water in the desert—the spring along the road to Shur.
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.
9 So the angel of the LORD told her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her authority.”
10 Then the angel added, “I will greatly multiply your offspring so that they will be too numerous to count.”
11 The angel of the LORD proceeded: “Behold, you have conceived and will bear a son. And you shall name him Ishmael, for the LORD has heard your cry of affliction.
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