Genesis 16:4

4 And Abram entered [in]to Hagar; and (soon) Hagar saw that she had conceived, and (then) she despised her lady.

Genesis 16:4 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 16:4

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, ( 1 Samuel 1:6 1 Samuel 1:7 ) ; and it was the more ungrateful, as it was at the motion of her mistress that she was given to Abram for wife.

Genesis 16:4 In-Context

2 and Sarai said to her husband, Lo! the Lord hath closed me (up), (so) that I should not bear (a) child; enter thou [in]to my servantess, if in hap I shall take children, namely of her (and so enter thou to my slave-girl, and perhaps I shall have children through her). And when he assented to her praying,
3 she took Hagar (the) Egyptian, her servantess, after ten years after that they began to inhabit the land of Canaan, and she gave Hagar (as) [a] wife to her husband. (she took her slave-girl, Hagar the Egyptian, and she gave her as a wife to her husband; this was ten years after that they had begun to live in the land of Canaan.)
4 And Abram entered [in]to Hagar; and (soon) Hagar saw that she had conceived, and (then) she despised her lady.
5 And Sarai said to Abram, Thou doest wickedly against me; I gave my servantess into thy bosom, which seeth that she [hath] conceived, and (now she) despiseth me; the Lord deem betwixt me and thee. (And Sarai said to Abram, Thou doest wickedly against me; I gave my slave-girl into thy arms, and she seeth that she hath conceived, and now she despiseth me; the Lord judge between me and thee.)
6 And Abram answered and said to her, Lo! thy servantess is in thine hand; use thou her as thee liketh. Therefore for Sarai tormented her, she fled away. (And Abram answered and said to her, Lo! thy slave-girl is in thy hands; do thou with her as thou pleaseth. And so when Sarai tormented her, she fled away.)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.