Sarai and Hagar: The Original Handmaid’s Tale

With the TV version of Margaret Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale starting a new season on Hulu, I thought this would be an interesting scene for many people.

May the Lord Open

In chapter 15 of Genesis, God promised to give Abram a son “of his own issue” and to give all the land of Canaan to his descendants. Abram was 75 and Sarai was 66 when God first made that promise. Chapter 16 picks up about ten years later. Abram and Sarai have been trying to have a child, and they are no spring chickens. Sarai never had a child of her own, even when she was young. Now they are 85 and 76, respectively. Sarai is afraid if Abram is limited to her, he can never have a son of his own issue. To borrow a saying from Margaret Atwood, no matter how many times they said, “Blessed be the fruit,” the LORD was not opening. So she approached her husband.

Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, bore him no children. She had an Egyptian slave-girl whose name was Hagar, and Sarai said to Abram, “You see that the LORD has prevented me from bearing children; go in to my slave-girl; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.”

(Genesis 16:1- 2 NRSV)

Hagar is Sarai’s slave-girl, also called a handmaid. In Abram and Sarai’s culture, this was an accepted practice. If a man’s wife was unable to conceive, the…