Skip to content
FAMILY · TOLD GENTLY

Bible Stories

“Suffer little children to come unto me.” — Mark 10:14 · KJV

"God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me."

Genesis 21:6 · King James Bible

The story

Sarah — first called Sarai — is the wife of Abraham. She leaves Ur with him and walks the whole road of promise: through Haran, through Canaan, through Egypt, through the years of waiting. God promises Abraham a son through her (Genesis 17:16), but she is already ninety years old. She laughs when she overhears the promise. God says, "Is any thing too hard for the Lord?" (Genesis 18:14). A year later Isaac is born — a name that means laughter. She dies at 127 years old in Hebron, and Abraham buys her the cave of Machpelah for her burial.

Why she matters

Sarah is the mother of the promise. Through her son Isaac come Jacob and the twelve tribes and, in the fullness of time, Jesus himself. The New Testament calls her "the mother of us all" who believe (compare Galatians 4). She is a picture of faith that keeps waiting even when the body is old and the promise seems impossible.

Where to read

Genesis 11:29 · 12–13 · 16 · 17:15–22 · 18:1–15 · 20 · 21:1–7 · 23 (KJV).

Walk further

Continue Your Journey

Where else this page opens into the household library.

AbrahamSarah's husbandIsaacSarah's long-awaited sonWomen of the BibleSarah in the great companyFamily Trees of GenesisThe mothers of the promise
← Walk back to the front door