Sarah

Sarah ( Hebrew: שָׂרָה, Standard Sara Tiberian Śārāh ; Arabic: سارة, Saara ; "a woman of high rank") is the wife of Abraham as described in the Quran and the Hebrew Bible. Sarah's story is told in the Book of Genesis.

The Hebrew word sarah indicates a woman of high rank and is sometimes translated as "princess" or goddess, or "high holy one".

Hebrew Bible

Journeys

Sarah was originally called Sarai (שָׂרַי / שָׂרָי , Standard Hebrew Saray) and lived with her husband, then called Abram ( אברם) in Haran. However, like several other great biblical women, Sarai could not have children. God promised Abram that he would become a father of multitudes, instructing him leave Haran and journey to an unknown land (later identified as Canaan). Sarai accompanied him on this journey, along with their nephew Lot and a number of slaves. In Canaan, they stayed long enough to establish two altars at sites which later became Israelite religious centers, one at Shechem, the other at Bethel. However, a famine threatened, and Abram decided to take refuge in Egypt.

Arriving in Egypt, Abram feared that Sarai's beauty would put his life in danger if their true relationship became known. He proposed that she pass as his sister. "I will be treated well for your sake. and my life will be spared because of you," he told her. Risking her own life as well as her chastity, Sarai agreed to this plan and was taken into Pharaoh's harem. The king rewarded Abram richly on her account. However, God struck Pharaoh and his household with severe plagues, after which the king suspected the truth. He censured Abram and ordered him to take his wife and depart, allowing him to leave with the considerable wealth he had presented Abram in livestock, slaves, and other possessions. (According to a later rabbinical tradition, Pharaoh was nevertheless impressed with Abram's righteousness, and sent his own daughter, Hagar, to be Sarai's slave.)

Settling in Canaan

The couple, now very wealthy, journeyed back to Bethel. There, Abram ordered Lot — who also possessed a great many flocks — to separate from the rest of the clan due to quarrels between their hersdmen. Lot made his fateful decision to take his flocks toward the well-watered plain of the Jordan arrive and from there south to Sodom, while Sarah and Abram remained in hill country. Abram led his flocks to area of Mamre, near Hebron, where he established yet another altar to his God.

Meanwhile, although God promised Abram that he would yet be a father of nations, after 10 years in Canaan Sarai remained childless. To help her husband fulfill his destiny, she offered her Egyptian slave, Hagar, to him for sexual intercourse, saying "perhaps I can build a family through her." (Gen. 16:2) Hagar quickly became pregnant and began to despise and taunt her mistress. Sarai bitterly complained to her husband, but Abram responded that she should do with her slave as she deemed best. Sarai's harsh treatment of Hagar forced the handmaid to flee to the desert. There, the angel of God met her and commanded her to return to Sarah and submit to her. The angel also announced that Hagar's son would be "a wild donkey of a man," her desendants would be "too numerous to count." (Gen. 15:10) After Hagar returned, she bore a son whom Abram named Ishmael.

God then established the covenant of cirumcision with Abram and changed his name to Abraham. Sarai's name was then changed to Sarah, meaning "woman of high rank."

At this point, three mysterious men visited Abraham at Mamre. Sarah baked bread for the strangers, while Abraham brought both meat and milk dishes. The strangers, now refered to as "the Lord," tell Abraham that Sarah, despite being 90, will soon bear a son. Overhearing the prophecy, Sarah laughed at the idea, thinking, "After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?" (Gen. 18:11)

Abraham soon moved to Gerar, where the story of Sarah, posing as Abraham's sister, being taken into the king's household is repeated — this time with a Philistine king named Abimelech. Warned by God in a dream not to touch Sarah, Abimelech returned Sarah to Abram with rich gifts. He were learn that the tale of her being Abraham's sister is not entirely false, for Sarah was in fact her husband's half-sister. (Gen. 20:1-12)

The Birth of Isaac

Having reunited with Abraham after her time in Abimelech's house, Sarah soon became pregnant. She gave brith to a healthy son named Isaac, meaning "he laughed," declaring: "God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me." (Gen. 21:7)

Sarah nursed the child, and he grew into a healthy toddler. When it came time to wean him, Abraham gave a feast to celebrate the event. However, Sarah noticed Ishmael playing with the lad in a way that distrubed her. She immediately went to Abraham and demanded: ""Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac." Abraham balked at this idea, but the biblical narrative tells us that God side with Sarah in the matter saying:

"Do not be so distressed about the boy and your maidservant. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring [b] will be reckoned. I will make the son of the maidservant into a nation also, because he is your offspring." (Gen. 21:12-13)

Sarah died in Kiryat Arba (קרית ארבע), or Hebron, at the age of 127 years. Her death prompted Abraham to purchase a family burial plot, and he approached Ephron the Hittite to sell him the Cave of Machpelah (Cave of the Patriarchs). Ephron demanded an exhorbitant price of 400 pieces of silver, which Abraham paid in full. The Cave of Machpelah would eventually be the burial site for all three Jewish patriarchs and three of the four matriarchs—Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and Jacob and Leah. Rachel was buried on the road to Bethlehem.

No further reference to Sarah is found in the Hebrew canon, except in Isa. Ii. 2, where the prophet appeals to his hearers to "look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you".

Sarah in Rabbinic Literature

The rabbis make much of Sarah's beauty. She was called also "Iscah" (Gen. 11: 29), because her beauty attracted general attention and admiration (Meg. 14a). She was so beautiful that all other persons seemed like apes in comparison (Talmud, Bava Batra 58a). Even the hardships of her journey with Abraham did not affect her beauty (Midrash Gen. Rabbah 11:4). According to another explanation, she was called Iscah because she had prophetic vision. (Meg. lc) She was superior to Abraham in the gift of prophecy. (Midrash Exodus Rabbah i. 1.) She was the "crown" of her husband; and he obeyed her words because he recognized this superiority on her part (Gen. R. 47:1). She was the only woman whom God deemed worthy to be addressed by Him directly, all the other prophetesses receiving their revelations through angels (ibid. 45:14). On their journeys Abraham converted the men, and Sarah the women (ibis. 39:21). She was called originally "Sarai", i.e., "my woman of high rank", because she was the princess of her house and of her tribe; later she was called "Sarah" = "woman of high rank" because she was recognized generally as such (Talmud Berachot 13a)Some rabbis claim Sarah was not the half-sister but the niece of Abraham, being the daughter of his brother Haran.

On meeting the Pharoah, it was Sarah, not Abraham, who said that Abraham was her brother. (Sefer ha-Yashar lc) The king deeded his entire estate to her and gave her the land of Goshen as her hereditary possession. It was this reason the Israelites subsequently lived in that land. (Pirke R. El. 36) The slave girl Hagar was in reality the kings own daughter. (ibid.) Sarah prayed to God to deliver her from the king, and God responded by smiting Pharaoh whenever he attempted to touch her. Pharaoh, not unkindly, questioned Sarah, and she finally confessed that she was Abraham's wife.

Sarah treated Hagar kindly for 10 years. But when Hagar became pregnant by Abraham, Hagar provoked her. Sarah imposed heavy work upon Hagar, and did indeed strike her. (Pirke R. El. 45:9) Sarah's behavior toward Ishmael, is justified by the rabbis not just on the grounds that she did not like his arrogant attitude toward Isaac, but that he threatened the boy's life and that she personally saw him commit the three greatest sins: idolatry, unchastity, and murder. (Genesis Rabbah 53:15)

After Sarah gave birth to Isaach, people doubted this miracle and suspected that the old couple and merely adopted a foundling. This prompted Abraham to hold a large weaning feast in Isaac's honor, at which Sarah proved her motherhood by nursing all the the children present.

Repetitions in the narrative

The story of Sarah's life, brief and incomplete as it is, presents nevertheless curious repetitions, e.g. the incident with Pharaoh and a similar incident with Abimelech. Marriages with half-sisters were, in primitive matriarchy, regarded as anything but incestuous. From the point of view of the history of culture these episodes are very instructive, but some consider it improbable that Abraham would have run the risk twice. Moreover, a similar incident is reported with regard to Isaac and Rebecca. This recurrence causes some to believe that none of the accounts is to be accepted as historical; they maintain that all three are variations of a theme common to the popular oral histories of the Patriarchs. That women were married in the way here supposed is not to be doubted. The purpose of the story is to extol the heroines as most beautiful and show that the Patriarchs were under the special protection of the Deity. The promise of Isaac and the explanation of the name are given in duplicate. First, Abraham is the recipient of the promise, and he laughs (ib. xvii. 15-21). In the second narrative. Abraham again is given the promise, but Sarah laughs. Finally, the name receives a third justification in Sarah's exclamation at his birth.

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