Genesis 16:5
In what happens next we can again
find a parallel in documents of the period that describe the marriage customs
of a society in Abram’s part of the world. There are provisions in the Code of
Hammurabi for the situation where a priestess, who was free to marry but not to
give birth, gives her husband a slave girl to provide him with a son. In this
case, if the slave woman attempts to claim equality with her mistress, her
mistress may reduce her again to being a slave.
Sarai said to Abram: Sarai does not punish her former slave girl
until she has claimed her legal rights, which she does now as she speaks to her
husband.
May the wrong done to me be on you! The wrong or “injustice” refers to the superior attitude Hagar has
taken in regard to Sarai. Sarai is saying something equivalent to “I have been
treated unjustly, and it is your fault” or, as Speiser translates, “This
outrage against me is your fault.” tev has “It is your fault that Hagar
despises me,” and gives an alternative rendering in a footnote: “May you suffer
for the wrong done against me.” As head of the household Abram has the power
and authority to set relationships right between these two women. But so far he
apparently has failed to do so. Sarai is now appealing to Abram’s legal
responsibility to act.
In translation this construction
must often be reworded to say, for example, “I have been wronged and it is your
fault,” “It is your fault that Hagar has treated me wrongly,” or “I have been
treated unfairly by Hagar, and you are responsible for it.”
I gave my maid to your embrace translates the idiomatic phrase “I
gave … into your bosom,” which Speiser says is not “a fanciful expression, but
a recognized legal phraseology.” For expressions relating a man’s wife to his
bosom, see Deut 13:6; 28:54. tev renders the expression “I gave her to you,”
with the purpose of the action being understood from the context. frcl, neb, reb,
njb say “into your arms,” gecl says “I turned over my slave girl to you,” and spcl
“I myself gave her to you for a wife.” Since the context makes clear the
purpose for which Sarai gave Hagar to Abram, it may not be necessary to say
more than “I gave my maid to you” or “I let my maid be a wife for you.”
However, it is important to understand and convey the feelings of Sarai, who is
grieved that she has acted in the proper legal way, but that things have turned
out wrong for her. One translation goes on in Sarai’s words, after she has
accused Abram of being the cause of the trouble, “It’s true that I myself gave
you my working girl. But now.…” Another takes a more angry tone: “I gave you my
working girl, and what happened? When she found that baby, she started to look
down on me.”
When she saw she had conceived: see verse 4.
She looked on me with contempt: see verse 4.
May the Lord judge between you and me! completes the speech by
Sarai that began at the beginning of the verse. Sarai demands a legal decision.
Her case is not between her and her maid but between her and her husband,
Abram. Since Hagar became Abram’s “wife” her conduct is the legal responsibility
of Abram. Sarai appeals to the Lord to judge who is at fault—Sarai who gave
Hagar to her husband, or Abram who has not corrected Hagar’s misconduct in
relation to Sarai. Sarai’s demand that the
Lord judge is a formula found many times in the Old Testament. See for
examples Gen 31:53; Exo 5:21; 1 Sam 24:12, 15. This expression is sometimes
rendered “I ask the Lord to decide this affair between you and me,” “I call on
the Lord to say who is right in this matter between us,” or idiomatically “I
ask the Lord to cut the words between us.” One translation that may serve as a
good model says “Well God has to find out who is right out of us two.” (William
David Reyburn and Euan McG. Fry, A Handbook on Genesis [UBS Handbook
Series; New York: United Bible Societies, 1998], 352-53)
