Abraham, Sarah, and the Angel,
Artist: Jan Provost, Date: 1520s
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The Hebrew word sarah indicates a woman of high rank and is sometimes translated as "princess" or goddess, or "high holy one".

Judaism

Etymology

Saray is a proper feminine noun from the masuline root word Sar (Strong's H8323) which is from the primitive root verb sarar (שרר):

1. to be or act as prince, rule, contend, have power, prevail over, reign, govern
   • (Qal) to rule over, govern
   • (Hithpael) to lord it over

As Abram had feared, Sarai was taken by Pharaoh, who rewarded Abram richly on her account. However, God struck Pharaoh and all his house with severe plagues, after which Pharaoh suspected the truth. He censured Abram and bade him to take his wife and depart. According to the classic Jewish commentaries, Pharaoh was nevertheless impressed with Abram's righteousness, and sent his own daughter, Hagar, to be a handmaid to Sarai.

Sarah Leading Hagar to Abraham, Artist: Matthias Stom. Date: 1637-39.
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Afterwards God changed their names to Abraham and Sarah to help them fulfill their new destiny as progenitors of the future nation of Israel. In Hebrew, the name Avram means "exalted father" or, alternately, "father of Aram," the country where Abraham was born. Sarai means "my woman of high rank", referring to her relationship with her husband. Now their names would be Avraham, meaning "father of many," and Sarah, meaning "woman of high rank". Then God sent three angels in the guise of men to inform the couple of the impending birth of Isaac. Abraham laughed with joy at the news, as he would be 100 years old at the time of the birth, but Sarah laughed with doubt, as she would be 90 years old and the ways of women had long since ceased for her.

Abraham next moved to Gerar, where Sarah was again taken by the ruler to become his wife after she claimed Abraham was her brother. Abimelech, however, was warned by God in a dream not to touch Sarah. When Abimelech reproved Abraham for the deception, Abraham justified himself by explaining that Sarah was the daughter of his father but not of his mother (Gen. 20:1-12).

Immediately after this incident, Sarah bore a son, Isaac. God instructed Abraham to name him after the laughter which Sarah had made when her son's birth was prophesied by the angel.

According to Rashi, a Jewish commentator on the Torah, people questioned whether the 100-year old Abraham really was the father of the child, as he and Sarah had lived together for decades without conceiving. Instead, people gossiped that Abimelech was the true father. For this reason, according to Rashi, God made Isaac's features exactly the same as Abraham's, so no one could claim a different paternity.

As Isaac grew up, according to the Bible, his older half-brother Ishmael began to mock him and Sarah demanded that Abraham send away both Hagar and Ishmael to protect Isaac. Some believe that Sarah's shunning, and the hard life of exile that followed, angered Ishmael and that this is one of the causes of strife between Islam and Christianity, as Ishmael became a prophet. Years later, at the death of Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael came together again to bury their father in the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron ^[](Gen. 25:9).

Sarah died in Kiryat Arba (קרית ארבע), or Hebron, at the age of 127 years. Her death prompted Abraham to purchase a family burial plot, and he approached Ephron the Hittite to sell him the Cave of Machpelah (Cave of the Patriarchs). Ephron demanded an exhorbitant price of 400 pieces of silver, which Abraham paid in full. The Cave of Machpelah would eventually be the burial site for all three Jewish patriarchs and three of the four matriarchs—Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and Jacob and Leah. Rachel was buried on the road to Bethlehem.

No further reference to Sarah is found in the Hebrew canon, except in Isaiah 51:1-3, where the prophet appeals to his hearers:

¹ "Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the LORD: look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug.

² Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for he was but one when I called him, that I might bless him and multiply him.

³ For the LORD comforts Zion; he comforts all her waste places and makes her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song.

Christianity

Islam

The hadith tell of an incident when Abraham called Sarah his sister, though Sarah was not biologically related to him. Muslim theologians explain that Abraham referred to Sarah as a sister in faith when he said "There are no believers on the surface of the earth except you [Sarah] and me." Thus Abraham neither lied, nor married his biological sister.

After their marriage, Sarah and Abraham had no children. Sarah, knowing that Abraham desired a child, gave her handmaiden Hajar to Abraham in marriage. Sarah and Abraham received some guests one day who brought them two prophecies: the destruction of the people of Lot and that Sarah would bear a son, despite her and Abraham's advance age. The promise was fulfilled in due time, and Sarah bore Isaac.

Notes

• Sanhedrin 69B
• (B. B. 58a)
• (Genesis Rabba xi. 4)
• (Exodus Rabba i. 1.)
• (Genesis Rabba xlvii. 1)
• (Ber. 13a; Genesis Rabba xlvii. On their journeys Abraham converted the men, and Sarah the women (ib. xxxix. 21).1)
• Sarai is the sister of Abram by another mother and wife of Abraham as described in the Hebrew Bible (the Book of Genesis) and the Quran. In Genesis 17:15 God changes her name to Sarah (princess) "a woman of high rank") as part of the covenant with El Shaddai after Hagar bears Abram his first born son Ishmael. (Hebrew: שָׂרָה, Standard Sara Tiberian Śārāh ; Arabic: 'سارة, Sārah‎; The name Sarai uses the semitic root Šarai or law and like El has the sense of power, authority, lord, deity, natural law, law as might be expected for the lady of the house. The Hebrew name Sarah indicates a woman of high rank (less than that of 1st wife) and is sometimes translated as "princess" .
• (Genesis Rabbah xl. 6;."Sefer ha-Yashar," section "Lek Leka")
• (ib. lviii. 5)
• (Pirḳe de Rabbi Eliezer xxxii.)
• ("Book of Jasher," section "Wayera")
• (Genesis Rabba lx. 15)
• 1 Peter 3:6, cited in This article incorporates text from the entry Sara in the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.
• Romans 4:19 and 9:9, cited in "Sara". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Catholic_Encyclopedia_(1913)/Sara.
• Gal 4:22-23
• Hebrews 11:11
• Ibn Kathir, QASAS AL-ANBIYAA, The story of Ibrahim. Retrieved 18 July, 07.
• Firestone, Reuven (January - April, 1993). "Prophethood, Marriageable Consanguinity, and Text: The Problem of Abraham and Sarah's Kinship Relationship and the Response of Jewish and Islamic Exegesis". The Jewish Quarterly Review 83 (3/4): 342–3.
• Griffiths, William (May 1891). "Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Gabriel in the Quran". The Old and New Testament Student 12 (5): 273. doi:10.1086/470738.
• Ali, Kecia (2006). "Hajar". in Leaman, Oliver. The Qur'an: an encyclopedia. Great Britain: Routeledge. pp. 287–289.
• Blue Letter Bible. "Dictionary and Word Search for sarar (Strong's 8323)". Blue Letter Bible. 1996-2009. 31 May 2009. < http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/Lexicon.cfm? Strongs=H8323&t=ESV >