Sara

Sara (Hebrew for "princess"; another form, Sarai, the signification of which is doubtful, is found in passages occurring before Genesis 17:15 ).

Sara was the wife of Abraham and also his step-sister ( Genesis 12:15 ; 20:12 ). We do not find any other account of her parentage. When Abraham goes down to Egypt because of the famine, he induces Sara, who though sixty-five years of age is very beautiful, to say that she is his sister; whereupon she is taken to wife by the King of Egypt, who, however, restores her after a Divine admonition ( Genesis 12 ). In a variant account ( Genesis 20 ), she is represented as being taken in similar circumstances by Abimelech, King of Gerara, and restored likewise to Abraham through a Divine intervention. After having been barren till the age of ninety, Sara, in fulfilment of a Divine promise, gives birth to Isaac ( Genesis 21:1-7 ). Later we find her through jealousy ill-treating her handmaiden Agar the Egyptian, who had borne a child to Abraham, and finally she forces that latter to drive away the bond-woman and her son Ishmael ( Genesis 21 ). Sara lived to the age of one hundred and twenty-seven years, and at her death was buried in the cave of Macphelah in Hebron ( Genesis 23 ). Isaiah 51:2 alludes to Sara as the mother of the chosen people; St. Peter praises her submission to her husband ( 1 Peter 3:6 ). Other New Testament references to Sara are in Romans 4:19 ; 9:9 ; Galatians 4:22-23 ; Hebrews 11:11 .

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