And Sarai Abram’s wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife.
3. And gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife . Moses states what was the design of Sarai; for neither did she intend to make her house a brothel, nor to be the betrayer of her maid’s chastity, nor a pander for her husband. Yet Hagar is improperly called a wife; because she was brought into another person’s bed, against the law of God.
We have here the marriage of Abram to Hagar, who was his secondary wife. Herein, though some excuse may be made for him, he cannot be justified, for from the beginning it was not so; and, when it was so, it seems to have proceeded from an irregular desire to build up families for the speedier peopling of the world and the church. Certainly it must not be so now.
Commenting on Genesis 16:1-3
And Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian,.... Took her by the hand, it is probable, and led her into the apartment where Abram was, and presented her to him; their characters are very exactly described, and the contrast beautifully given, that the affair might be the more remarkable and observable: after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan; so...