Person
Sarah
Also called Sarai
In Genesis 11–23, Abraham's wife. Childless into old age, she laughs at the promise of a son, then gives birth to Isaac.
See Genesis 11:30, Genesis 18:12, Genesis 21:2.
A tent door and a newborn marks Sarah in the reading view: she listened at the tent door to the promise of a son (Genesis 18:10, Genesis 21:2).
Mentioned in 48 verses across 5 books, first in Genesis 11:29. The verses below are the ones linked to this person (the Theographic dataset, with our sourced corrections).
How artists have pictured her
3 works from different centuries and traditions. Each shows how its time and place imagined Sarah, not how she looked.
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In these stories
In the Bible
The first 10 of 48 verses, in Bible order. Text from the Berean Standard Bible; verse numbers follow the KJV.
Genesis
- Genesis 11:29
And Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. Abram’s wife was named Sarai, and Nahor’s wife was named Milcah; she was the daughter of Haran, who was the father of both Milcah and Iscah.
- Genesis 11:30
But Sarai was barren; she had no children.
- Genesis 11:31
And Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai the wife of Abram, and they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans for the land of Canaan. But when they arrived in Haran, they settled there.
- Genesis 12:5
And Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all the possessions and people they had acquired in Haran, and set out for the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan,
- Genesis 12:11
As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “Look, I know that you are a beautiful woman,
- Genesis 12:17
The LORD, however, afflicted Pharaoh and his household with severe plagues because of Abram’s wife Sarai.
- Genesis 16:1
Now Abram’s wife Sarai had borne him no children, but she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar.
- Genesis 16:2
So Sarai said to Abram, “Look now, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Please go to my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.
- Genesis 16:3
So after he had lived in Canaan for ten years, his wife Sarai took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to Abram to be his wife.
- Genesis 16:5
Then Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be upon you! I delivered my servant into your arms, and ever since she saw that she was pregnant, she has treated me with contempt. May the LORD judge between you and me.”
Events
Events the dataset lists Sarah as taking part in. Dates follow its Ussher–Jones reckoning (one of several traditional counts), not established history.
- c. 1921 BCAbraham enters Canaan
- c. 1921 BCAbraham goes to Egypt
- c. 1921 BCSojourn in Canaan and Egypt
- c. 1896 BCBirth of Isaac
Dictionary
From Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897), as attached to this record by Theographic. The entry is for the name and can describe more than one person who bore it. Easton wrote in 1897, and some of his views are now debated.
Read Easton’s entry
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.”