ESTUDIO DEL VERSÍCULO
Genesis 21:7 — Sarah's Wonder at Nursing a Son in Old Age
Sarah marvels that she herself is nursing a child, the very one she bore to Abraham in his old age — a wonder that crowns the long story of her barrenness.
Escritura
- 7.Y añadió: ¿Quién dijera a Abraham que Sara habría de dar de mamar a hijos? Pues le he dado un hijo en su vejez.And she said, Who would have said unto Abraham, that Sarah should give children suck? for I have borne him a son in his old age.
Qué significa este pasaje
Genesis 21:7 is Sarah's second exclamation in this chapter. In verse 6 she declared, 'God hath made me to laugh; every one that heareth will laugh with me.' Here in verse 7 she expands on that laughter by pointing to its specific cause: she, Sarah, is nursing a child. The rhetorical question 'Who would have said unto Abraham, that Sarah should give children suck?' frames the nursing as something no one would have predicted — a reversal so complete that it overturns every assumption tied to her decades of barrenness.
The verse links two details that frame the wonder. First, Sarah is the one giving suck: she is directly nourishing the son she conceived, not handing him off to a wet nurse. Second, the child is the son she 'bare unto him [Abraham] in his old age' — phrasing that picks up verse 2 ('at the set time of which God had spoken') and verse 5 ('Abraham was a hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born unto him'). The juxtaposition of 'old age' with active nursing is the point: what nature had made impossible has been done by the Lord who 'visited Sarah as he had said' (21:1).
Sarah's words also look ahead. Genesis 21:8 records that the child grew and was weaned, and that Abraham made a great feast on the day Isaac was weaned. Verse 7 sits between the birth and the weaning, fixing Sarah's nursing as the visible sign that the promised son is truly hers and truly alive. The exclamation is thus both memory (recalling the promise and the long wait) and present joy (she is now doing what was once unthinkable).
Contexto
Verses 1–5 establish the framework that verse 7 marvels at: the Lord 'visited Sarah as he had said' (21:1), Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age 'at the set time' (21:2), the child was named Isaac (21:3), circumcised on the eighth day (21:4), and Abraham was a hundred years old at the birth (21:5). Sarah's exclamations in verses 6 and 7 are responses to this completed promise. Verse 6 supplies the theme of laughter; verse 7 specifies the nursing as its concrete fulfillment.
Verses 8–10 then move the narrative forward: Isaac grows and is weaned with a great feast (21:8), and immediately afterward Sarah sees Ishmael 'mocking' and demands that Hagar and her son be cast out (21:9–10). Verse 7 therefore stands at a brief high point — the mother who once laughed in disbelief at the promise (Genesis 18:12–15) is now publicly nursing the promised son, just before the chapter's tension over inheritance shifts the story toward Hagar and Ishmael.
Preguntas frecuentes
Why does Sarah single out the act of nursing in verse 7?
In the ancient Near Eastern setting described in these verses, nursing was the mother's direct, public confirmation that a child was hers. By naming this specific act, Sarah shows that the promise of a son has moved from announcement to lived reality — she is personally sustaining the child she once could not conceive.
How does verse 7 connect to verse 6?
Verse 6 declares that God has made Sarah laugh and that everyone who hears will laugh with her. Verse 7 grounds that laughter in a concrete image: she herself is nursing a son born to Abraham in his old age. The general theme of rejoicing becomes a specific wonder at an event no one would have predicted.
What is the significance of the phrase 'in his old age'?
The phrase repeats the language of verses 2 and 5, where Sarah bears the son 'in his old age' and Abraham is a hundred years old. By echoing that wording in verse 7, the text places the nursing alongside the unlikely circumstances of the birth, so that the wonder of the verse rests on the gap between Abraham's age and the living child at Sarah's breast.