Genesis 16:4
And he went in to her. But she, perceiving that she was with child, despised her mistress.
Open Genesis 16:4 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Qui ingressus est ad eam. At illa concepisse se videns, despexit dominam suam.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ εἰσῆλθεν πρὸς Ἁγάρ, καὶ συνέλαβεν· καὶ ἴδεν ὅτι ἐν γαστρὶ ἔχει, καὶ ἠτιμάσθη ἡ κυρία ἐναντίον αὐτῆς.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיָּבֹ֥א אֶל הָגָ֖ר וַתַּ֑הַר וַתֵּ֨רֶא֙ כִּ֣י הָרָ֔תָה וַתֵּקַ֥ל גְּבִרְתָּ֖הּ בְּעֵינֶֽיהָ
The Fathers on this verse
St Augustine Reply to Faustus the Manichæan, Faustus states his objections to the morality of the law and the prophets, and Augustin seeks by the application of the type and the allegory to explain away the moral difficulties of the Old Testament
5. Again, we are not responsible for what is said of Abraham, that in his irrational craving to have children, and not believing God, who promised that his wife Sara should have a son, he defiled himself with a mistress, with the knowledge of his wife, which only made it worse; or that, in sacrilegious profanation of his marriage, he on different occasions, from avarice and greed, sold his wife Sara for the gratification of the kings Abimelech and Pharas, telling them that she was his sister, because she was very fair. …
St Augustine Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John, 1 John V. 1-3
10. And what have we done, say they? We are the persecuted, not the persecutors. Ye are the persecutors, O wretched men. In the first place, in that ye have divided the Church. Mightier the sword of the tongue than the sword of steel. Agar, Sarah’s maid, was proud, and she was afflicted by her mistress for her pride. That was discipline, not punishment. Accordingly, when she had gone away from her mistress, what said the angel to her? “Return to thy mistress.” Then, O carnal soul, like a proud bond-woman, suppose thou have suffered any trouble for discipline’ sake, why ravest thou? “Return to thy mistress,” hold fast the peace of the Church. …