Sarah: The Laughter of a Barren Woman at the Tent Door

Who She Was

Sarah is the wife of Abraham, the mother of Isaac, a woman of the patriarchal era whose name runs from the genealogies of Genesis 11 all the way into the New Testament. By the reckoning of Ussher, Annals of the World (1650), she was born 1986 BC and died 1859 BC (127 years). She is named in forty-eight verses across five books, most of them in Genesis. Her family record lists Terah as her parent, Abraham as her husband, Isaac as her son, and Abraham, Nahor and Haran among her siblings.

First Named, and Named Barren

Her introduction is brief and heavy: "Abram and Nahor married wives. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife was Milcah, the daughter of Haran, who was also the father of Iscah. Sarai was barren. She had no child" (Genesis 11:29-30). The very next verse puts her on the road: "Terah took Abram his son, Lot the son of Haran, his son's son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife. They went from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan. They came to Haran and lived there" (Genesis 11:31). She is named again as the household travels in Genesis 12:5, and appears in the Egypt account at Genesis 12:11 and Genesis 12:17.

From Genesis 17 onward the text calls her Sarah rather than Sarai; Genesis 17:15 sits at that seam, and she is spoken of again in Genesis 17:17, 17:19 and 17:21.

Sarai, Hagar and a Plan of Her Own

The barrenness of Genesis 11:30 becomes a decision in Genesis 16: "Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bore him no children. She had a servant, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. Sarai said to Abram, 'See now, Yahweh has restrained me from bearing. Please go in to my servant. It may be that I will obtain children by her.' Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to Abram her husband to be his wife" (Genesis 16:1-3). She names God as the one who has restrained her, and then arranges around him.

What follows she does not handle well. "Sarai said to Abram, 'This wrong is your fault. I gave my servant into your bosom, and when she saw that she had conceived, she despised me. May Yahweh judge between me and you.' But Abram said to Sarai, 'Behold, your maid is in your hand. Do to her whatever is good in your eyes.' Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her face" (Genesis 16:5-6). Sarai is named once more in the wilderness exchange of Genesis 16:8.

Laughter Inside the Tent

"They asked him, 'Where is Sarah, your wife?' He said, 'There, in the tent.' He said, 'I will certainly return to you at about this time next year; and behold, Sarah your wife will have a son.' Sarah heard in the tent door, which was behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age. Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. Sarah laughed within herself, saying, 'After I have grown old will I have pleasure, my lord being old also?' Yahweh said to Abraham, 'Why did Sarah laugh, saying, "Will I really bear a child when I am old?"'" (Genesis 18:9-15). She is also mentioned at Genesis 18:6. She laughed where no one could hear, and was heard.

God Visited Sarah

"Yahweh visited Sarah as he had said, and Yahweh did to Sarah as he had spoken. Sarah conceived, and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham called his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac" (Genesis 21:1-3). Then the laughter turns: "Sarah said, 'God has made me laugh. Everyone who hears will laugh with me.' She said, 'Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? For I have borne him a son in his old age'" (Genesis 21:6-7). She is named further in Genesis 21:9 and 21:12, and in the account of Genesis 20:2, 20:14, 20:16 and 20:18.

Her death is recorded at Genesis 23:1-2, and her name stands in Genesis 23:19, 24:36, 24:67, 25:10, 25:12 and 49:31. Long after, Isaiah 51:2 names her again.

What Scripture Does Not Say

Her mother is not named. The summary line handed down of her calls her sister of Abraham, while Genesis 11:29-31 calls her his wife and Terah's daughter-in-law; the passages quoted here do not explain that double description. Nothing is told us in these quoted texts of her years in Ur before the family left, nor of her thoughts across the ten years of Genesis 16:3, nor of her life after Genesis 21. Where the record is silent, it stays silent.

Her Name in the New Testament

Four New Testament texts name her: Romans 4:19, Romans 9:9, Hebrews 11:11 and 1 Peter 3:6. The woman first introduced as barren, who laughed inside a tent at a promise she thought too late, is carried by the apostles into the church's own account of faith and promise. The line runs through the son God gave her, whom Abraham called Isaac (Genesis 21:3), and it began with a sentence no one would have called good news: "Sarai was barren. She had no child" (Genesis 11:30).