sarah Summary and Overview

princess, the wife and at the same time the half-sister of Abraham (Gen. 11:29; 20:12). This name was given to her at the time that it was announced to Abraham that she should be the mother of the promised child. Her story is from her marriage identified with that of the patriarch till the time of her death. Her death, at the age of one hundred and twenty-seven years (the only instance in Scripture where the age of a woman is recorded), was the occasion of Abraham's purchasing the cave of Machpelah as a family burying-place. In the allegory of Gal. 4:22-31 she is the type of the "Jerusalem which is above." She is also mentioned as Sara in Heb. 11:11 among the Old Testament worthies, who "all died in faith." (See ABRAHAM T0000054.)

(princess). 1. The wife and half-sister, #Ge 20:12| of Abraham, and mother of Isaac. Her name is first introduced in #Ge 11:29| as Sarai. The change of her name from Sarai, my princess (i.e. Abraham's), to Sarah, princess (for all the race), was made at the same time that Abram's name was changed to Abraham, --on the establishment of the covenant of circumcision between him and God. Sarah's history is of course that of Abraham. [ABRAHAM] She died at Hebron at the age of 127 years, 28 years before her husband and was buried by him in the cave of (B.C. 1860.) She is referred to in the New Testament as a type of conjugal obedience in #1Pe 3:6| and as one of the types of faith in #Heb 11:11| 2. Sarah, the daughter of Asher. #Nu 26:46|

SA'RAH (princess). 1. The half sister and wife of Abraham, called "Sarai" down to Gen 17:15, when God changed her name from "my princess," as for Abraham, to "princess," for all the race. In addition to the notice of her in the article Abraham, it may be proper to say that she as well as Abraham was the subject of special promises. Gen 17:16. Her conduct in Egypt, Gen 12:15, and toward Hagar, Gen 16:6; Lev 21:10, and also when Isaac was promised. Gen 18:15, evinced great weakness, but her exemplary faith is commended by the apostles. Heb 11:11; 1 Pet 3:6. She lived to one hundred and twenty-seven years of age, or upward of thirty-six years after the birth of Isaac, and was buried in a field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought for the purpose. 2. A woman mentioned in Num 26:46. See Serah.

("princess".) (See ABRAHAM; ISAAC.) Sarah is Iscah, sister of Milcah and Lot (called "brother of Abraham." Genesis 14:16), and daughter of Haran. As Nahor married his niece Milcah, so Abraham (Genesis 11:27), the youngest brother of the three, his niece Sarah, "daughter," i.e. granddaughter, "of his father not of his mother," probably not more than ten years his junior (Genesis 11:29; Genesis 20:12) Sarai, "my princess," was her name down to Genesis 17:15 when God changed it. She was thenceforward to be princess not merely of Abraham and his seed, but of all families of the earth. An example of faith, though she erred in abetting Abram's pretence that she was his sister (her beauty was then great: Genesis 12:13, etc., Genesis 20:5; Genesis 20:13); still more in suggesting the carnal policy of Abram's taking Hagar to obtain children by her, when God delayed the promised seed by Sarah herself (Genesis 16:1-3); also in harshness to Hagar, when the retributive consequences of her own false step overtook her through the very instrument of her sin (Genesis 16:5-6; Jeremiah 2:19; Proverbs 1:31); also laughing in unbelief at God's promise that she should bear a son in her old age (Genesis 18), forgetting that nothing is "too hard for the Lord" (see Jeremiah 32:17; Luke 1:37), then denying that she laughed, through fear; faith triumphed at last (Genesis 21). "At the set time the Lord visited Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did unto Sarah as He had spoken"; "God hath made me to laugh," said Sarah, "all that hear will laugh with me," namely, in joy as Abraham laughed (Genesis 17:17), not in incredulity, as in Genesis 18:12-15. Under God's prompting, Sarah, seeing Hagar's son "mocking" at Isaac the son of the promise during the feast for the latter when weaned (see the spiritual sense Galatians 4:22-31), said to Abraham, "cast out this bondwoman," etc. (See HAGAR.) Hebrews 11:11, "through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed, and that when she was past age (the Alexandrinus and Sinaiticus manuscripts omit "was delivered of a child") because she judged Him faithful that promised"; though first doubting, as the weaker vessel, she ceased to doubt, faith triumphing over sense. "Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord," and so is a pattern of a meek and quiet spirit to all wives (1 Peter 3:6; Genesis 18:12). The truth of the sacred narrative appears in its faithfully recording her faults as well as her faith. Her motherly affection so won Isaac that none but Rebekah could "comfort him after his mother's death" (Genesis 24:6-7). She was 127 when she died at Hebron, 28 years before Abraham, and was buried in the cave of Machpelah, bought from Ephron the Hittite; her "shrine" is shown opposite Abraham's, with Isaac's and Rebekah's on one side, Jacob's and Leah's on the other.