Sarah

Life and work

Sarai was Abram's wife and, as later revealed, also his half-sister through their father Terah. Genesis introduces her as barren, 'she had no child' (Genesis 11:29-31), a condition that shapes much of her story.

When famine drove the couple to Egypt, Abram, fearing for his own life because of Sarai's beauty, asked her to say she was his sister; Pharaoh took her into his household, and God struck Pharaoh's house with plagues until the ruse was discovered and the couple sent away (Genesis 12:10-20).

Still childless after years in Canaan, Sarai gave her Egyptian servant Hagar to Abram as a surrogate wife, a recognized legal custom of the era; once Hagar conceived, tension between the two women grew sharp enough that Sarai treated Hagar harshly, and Hagar fled temporarily into the wilderness (Genesis 16:1-6).

When Abram was 99, God renewed the covenant, changed his name to Abraham and Sarai's to Sarah ('princess'), and promised that Sarah herself would bear a son within the year despite her advanced age; Abraham laughed at the idea (Genesis 17:15-21).

The promise was repeated to Abraham by three visitors at Mamre; overhearing from the tent, Sarah laughed to herself at the thought of pleasure in her old age, and when confronted, denied laughing out of fear (Genesis 18:9-15).

Later, in Gerar, the sister deception was repeated: Abraham again presented Sarah as his sister, and King Abimelech took her, only for God to intervene before any wrongdoing occurred and to rebuke Abimelech in a dream (Genesis 20).

Sarah bore Isaac when she was about 90, exclaiming, 'God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me' (Genesis 21:1-7). After weaning Isaac, she saw Ishmael mocking and demanded that Abraham cast out Hagar and Ishmael so that Ishmael would not share Isaac's inheritance — a request God told Abraham to honor (Genesis 21:8-14).

Sarah died at Kiriath-arba (Hebron) at the age of 127; Abraham purchased the cave of Machpelah from Ephron the Hittite as a burial site for her, the first piece of land the patriarch owned outright in Canaan (Genesis 23).

Questions and debates

Sarah's harsh treatment of Hagar — both when Hagar first conceived (Genesis 16:6) and when she insisted Abraham expel Hagar and Ishmael into the wilderness (Genesis 21:10) — is widely discussed by commentators as a genuinely troubling aspect of her story, even as the narrative also treats her jealousy sympathetically within its own cultural framework.

Extra-biblical evidence

No extra-biblical inscription or ancient record names Sarah specifically. The Nuzi tablets' documentation of surrogate-wife customs (relevant to her decision regarding Hagar) is discussed under Abraham's and Hagar's entries, as they illuminate the legal custom rather than referring to Sarah as an individual.

Scripture references

• Genesis 12:10-20 — Passed off as Abram's sister in Egypt
• Genesis 17:15-21 — Renamed Sarah; promised a son in her old age
• Genesis 18:9-15 — Sarah laughs at the promise of a son
• Genesis 21:1-7 — Birth of Isaac
• Romans 4:19 — Paul cites Sarah's barrenness as part of Abraham's faith
• Hebrews 11:11 — Sarah commended for faith to conceive in old age
• 1 Peter 3:6 — Sarah held up as an example of a wife's respect, 'calling him lord'

Further reading

• Encyclopaedia Britannica: Sarah
• Bible Odyssey: Sarah

Reflect

Sarah laughed at a promise that seemed too late, then named her son 'laughter' — what hope have you quietly given up on?