Northern Kentucky's Evening Interdenominational
Community Bible Study

Photos for Lesson 10, Gen 16-17

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Hammurapi (right), a ruler of Mesopotamia early in the 2nd millennium BC compiled a code of laws (center) called the "Code of Hammurapi" (Musee du Louvre, Paris). This code allowed a wife who was childless to give her husband a slave girl to bear children on her behalf. If the slave girl produced children, the law allowed her to claim equality with her mistress; and though she remained a slave, the law prohibited her sale. This probably represents the cultural situation described in Genesis 16 regarding Abraham, his wife Sarah, and her Egyptian slave Hagar.  

Persecuted by Sarah, a pregnant Hagar flees south to the desert, apparently attempting to return to her home of Egypt. An angel meets her at a spring in the Kadesh area (left), and sends her back to Abraham and Sarah.