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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadMatthew Poole Commentary - Genesis 16:6 - 16:6
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Thy maid is in thine hand, i.e. subject to thy power and authority, as the phrase is taken, Gen_24:10 39:4,6,8 Num 31:49. For though she be my concubine, yet she is thy inferior; and therefore if she exalt herself above her measure, I give thee power to exercise thy authority over her. But whether this was not one of Abram’s infirmities, to give up his second wife into the hands of the first, may well be questioned. Use whatsoever power God hath given thee over her; for we must not think that Abram gave her power of life and death over her, especially now when she was with child. Therefore here, as often elsewhere, the general words must be limited from the nature of the thing, and from other texts of Scripture, which forbid cruelty even to our servants.
And when Sarai dealt hardly with her, either by imposing labours upon her above her strength, or by grievous stripes which she could not bear,
she fled from her face, contrary to God’s command, Ecc_10:4, and to the laws of justice, because both her person and the fruit of her body were not her own, but Abram’s right in possession.