Age of the patriarchs · Wife of Abraham
Sarah in the Bible: Promise, Laughter, and Hagar
She followed Abraham from Ur, waited decades for a child, handed her servant Hagar to her husband and then turned on her, and laughed in the tent at ninety. Ask about waiting, about laughter, and about what went wrong with Hagar.
Published by Walk Into Scripture · Updated · Scripture and AI editorial standards
Who was Sarah in the Bible?
Sarah, first called Sarai, was the wife of Abraham. Childless for decades, she gave her Egyptian servant Hagar to Abraham and then treated Hagar harshly. In old age she laughed at the promise of a son, bore Isaac, and later had Hagar and Ishmael sent away. She died at 127 (Genesis 16:1-6; 18:9-15; 21:1-14; 23:1-2).
Abraham and Sarah lived as semi-nomadic herders in Canaan, moving with flocks, servants and tents, around the early second millennium BC. A wife who bore no child was in a precarious place, and a custom of the time let a childless wife give an enslaved woman to her husband so that the child would count as her own. Hagar, an Egyptian, was that woman.
Where to read Sarah’s story
Genesis 11-23. Isaiah, Hebrews and 1 Peter remember her later; those passages are the reader's, not Sarah's.
Genesis records Sarah's words to Abraham and to Hagar with unusual frankness and does not tidy them up. This voice is an AI representation, and it will tell the hard parts of her story as plainly as the text does.
Sarah’s story in order
- Genesis 11:29-31
Sarai, Abram's wife, is barren; the family leaves Ur of the Chaldees.
- Genesis 12:10-20
In Egypt Abram has her say she is his sister, and she is taken into Pharaoh's house.
- Genesis 16:1-6
Sarai gives Hagar to Abram; when Hagar conceives, Sarai deals harshly with her and Hagar flees.
- Genesis 16:7-13
The LORD's angel finds Hagar by a spring; she names God “a God who sees.”
- Genesis 17:15-19
Her name is changed from Sarai to Sarah, and a son is promised through her.
- Genesis 18:9-15
Hearing the visitors' promise in the tent, Sarah laughs, then denies it in fear.
- Genesis 20:1-2
In Gerar Abraham again calls her his sister, and Abimelech takes her.
- Genesis 21:1-7
Sarah bears Isaac in her old age: “God has made me laugh.”
- Genesis 21:8-14
Sarah demands that Hagar and Ishmael be cast out, and Abraham sends them away.
- Genesis 23:1-2
Sarah dies at one hundred twenty-seven in Hebron, and Abraham mourns her.
- Hebrews 11:11
Hebrews names Sarah among those who acted by faith.
Who was Sarah?
Sarah first appears as Sarai, the wife of Abram, in a single blunt line: “Sarai was barren. She had no child” (Genesis 11:30, WEB). She left Ur of the Chaldees with Abram's family, went on to Haran, and then into Canaan when Abram answered the LORD's call. Abraham later says she was his half-sister, the daughter of his father but not of his mother (Genesis 20:12). Genesis gives her age at key moments: she was about ninety when the son was promised and lived to one hundred twenty-seven (Genesis 17:17; 23:1).
Her life was spent on the move, and twice it was put at risk by her husband. In Egypt during a famine, Abram asked her to say she was his sister so that he would not be killed for her beauty, and she was taken into Pharaoh's house until plagues exposed the lie (Genesis 12:10-20). Abraham did the same in Gerar, and Abimelech took her (Genesis 20:1-2). The text does not record what Sarah said or felt in either episode. Many readers find these chapters uncomfortable, and that discomfort is a fair reading of what happened to her.
Sarah and Hagar
After ten years in Canaan with no child, Sarai turned to a custom of the time. She told Abram, “Please go in to my servant. It may be that I will obtain children by her” (Genesis 16:2, WEB), and gave him Hagar, her Egyptian servant. Hagar had no recorded say in this. When Hagar conceived, the text says Sarai was despised in her eyes. Sarai blamed Abram, “This wrong is your fault” (Genesis 16:5, WEB), and Abram handed the matter back to her. Then “Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her face” (Genesis 16:6, WEB).
Genesis does not soften this, and it gives Hagar her own encounter with God. The LORD's angel found her by a spring in the wilderness, told her that her son would be named Ishmael “because the LORD has heard your affliction,” and Hagar named the LORD who spoke to her, “You are a God who sees” (Genesis 16:11-13, WEB). Years later, after Isaac was weaned, Sarah saw Ishmael mocking and said, “Cast out this servant and her son!” (Genesis 21:10, WEB). Abraham was grieved, but he sent Hagar and the boy into the wilderness of Beersheba with bread and water. When the water ran out Hagar wept, and God heard the boy and opened her eyes to a well (Genesis 21:14-19). Hagar's suffering is real in the text, and so is God's care for her.
The laughter in the tent
When three visitors came to Abraham's tent at Mamre, one of them said that Sarah would have a son about that time the next year. Sarah was listening at the tent door, and the narrator notes that she had passed the age of childbearing. She “laughed within herself, saying, ‘After I have grown old will I have pleasure, my lord being old also?’” (Genesis 18:12, WEB). The LORD asked why Sarah had laughed and said, “Is anything too hard for the LORD?” (Genesis 18:14, WEB). Sarah denied it, “for she was afraid,” and the answer came, “No, but you did laugh” (Genesis 18:15, WEB).
Abraham had laughed at the same promise a chapter earlier (Genesis 17:17). When Isaac was born, whose name sounds like the Hebrew for “he laughs,” Sarah's laughter changed in kind: “God has made me laugh. Everyone who hears will laugh with me” (Genesis 21:6, WEB). She marvelled that anyone would have said Sarah would nurse children. The story lets disbelief and joy sit in the same word, and many readers find in it permission to admit that a promise once seemed impossible to them too.
How later Scripture remembers Sarah
Sarah is remembered as a mother of God's people. Isaiah tells listeners to “look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you” (Isaiah 51:2, WEB). Hebrews says that “by faith even Sarah herself received power to conceive” when she was past age, because she counted faithful the one who had promised (Hebrews 11:11, WEB). Peter holds up her respect for Abraham as an example to wives (1 Peter 3:6), and Paul uses Sarah and Hagar as a figure in an argument about freedom (Galatians 4:21-31).
Those later readings do not erase what Genesis records. The same woman who is honored for faith also laughed in disbelief, used another woman to try to build her family, and drove that woman away twice. Genesis tells all of it without comment, and readers in every tradition have had to hold her faith and her failures together. She died in Hebron, and Abraham came to mourn and weep for her and bought the cave of Machpelah to bury her (Genesis 23:1-2).
What Scripture records about Sarah — and what it doesn’t
What the text says
- Sarai was barren and had no child (Genesis 11:30).
- She gave her servant Hagar to Abram to obtain children (Genesis 16:2-3).
- She dealt harshly with Hagar, who fled (Genesis 16:6).
- She laughed when she heard she would have a son, then denied it (Genesis 18:12-15).
- She bore Isaac in her old age (Genesis 21:1-3).
- She died at one hundred twenty-seven (Genesis 23:1).
What it does not say
- It does not say Hagar agreed to be given to Abram.
- It does not excuse or praise Sarai's harsh treatment of Hagar.
- It does not record what Sarah said or felt in Pharaoh's house.
- It does not say Sarah was punished for laughing.
- It does not say what Ishmael's mocking consisted of.
Common questions about Sarah
Why did Sarah laugh?
When she overheard that she would have a son, Sarah laughed within herself and asked whether she would have pleasure after growing old, with her husband old too (Genesis 18:12). The narrator has just noted that she had passed the age of childbearing (Genesis 18:11). She denied laughing because she was afraid (Genesis 18:15). After Isaac was born she said God had made her laugh (Genesis 21:6).
How did Sarah treat Hagar?
Sarai gave Hagar to Abram to bear a child for her (Genesis 16:2-3). When Hagar conceived and Sarai felt despised, she dealt harshly with Hagar, who fled into the wilderness (Genesis 16:4-6). Later Sarah demanded that Abraham cast out Hagar and her son Ishmael, and he sent them away (Genesis 21:9-14). Genesis records this plainly and also records God hearing and caring for Hagar and her son.
How old was Sarah when Isaac was born?
Genesis says Abraham was one hundred when Isaac was born (Genesis 21:5) and that Sarah was ten years younger: Abraham asks whether Sarah, who is ninety, will give birth (Genesis 17:17). So Sarah was about ninety. She lived to one hundred twenty-seven (Genesis 23:1).
Why was Sarai's name changed to Sarah?
God told Abraham that Sarai's name would be Sarah, that he would bless her, and that she would be a mother of nations, with kings coming from her (Genesis 17:15-16). Both forms are usually understood to mean “princess.” The renaming comes at the same time as Abram's renaming to Abraham and the promise of Isaac.