What Does Genesis 16:6 Mean in the King James?
But Abram said unto Sarai, Behold, thy maid is in thy hand; do to her as it pleaseth thee. And when Sarai dealt hardly with her, she fled from her face.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse leaves no distance between delegated authority and its consequence: Sarai’s affliction drives Hagar into flight.
THE MEANING
Power can pass from one person to another while the suffering lands on someone with less power. The verse names Sarai’s treatment as affliction and Hagar’s flight as its consequence; her escape shows what the hand upon her does.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that another person’s permission makes your treatment of someone harmless dissolves here: Abram gives Sarai authority, but Hagar still suffers under how Sarai uses it.
THE ROOT
וַתְּעַנֶּהָ
watteʿannēhā
GROWS FROM
ענה
ʿ-n-h
to afflict, press down, or bring low
“dealt hardly with her” in this verse is watteʿannēhā. The Hebrew verb names more than harshness as a manner: its root carries the sense of pressing someone down. That same root appears in words for the afflicted person and for affliction itself, joining Hagar’s particular treatment to a wider condition of suffering.
ALSO GROWS
ʿānî: afflicted, poor, or brought low
עָנִי
This branch names the person who bears the downward pressure of the verb used for Sarai’s treatment of Hagar.
ʿŏnî: affliction or misery
עֳנִי
This noun turns the action into a condition, the same root-shape used for the affliction God sees in Exodus 3:7.
THE PATTERN
Authority does not erase the suffering it permits; scripture names the harm and makes the afflicted person visible.
And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.THE THREAD
And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;Sarai’s verb and Exodus’s “affliction” share the Hebrew root ענה (ʿ-n-h, to afflict or bring low). The shared root lets Hagar’s individual injury and the people’s wider oppression sit within one word-family.
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