Abraham sits apart on one side of a column while Sarah nurses Isaac on the other. The Birth of Isaac, Nicholas of Verdun, 1181. Stift Klosterneuburg, Austria
Isaac’s Birth Exposes the Rift Between Abraham and Sarah
YHWH takes note of Sarah, and she conceives and bears a son. Then Abraham steps in: he names the boy and circumcises him. Sarah reclaims him, finding her own laughter in his name and pinning old age on Abraham alone. When the boy is weaned, Abraham holds a great feast, with Sarah nowhere in sight. The two parents never appear together, and neither calls Isaac “our son.” What has come between them?
Published: November 9, 2026
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Last Updated: November 10, 2026
The author is indebted to Noam Zion and Dr. Barry Dov Walfish for numerous helpful critiques and suggestions in response to an earlier version of this article.
Biblical translations are from RJPS with some modifications. This analysis takes a synchronic approach to the received text. For an example of a source-critical approach to this story cycle, see Zev Farber, “Is Sarah Old or Young When Kidnapped by Abimelech?” TheTorah (2014).
The word אֹתוֹ (“him” or “it”) can be understood as the direct object of the verb דִּבֶּר (“had spoken”), in which case it can be elided in the translation, subsumed under the English phrase “of which” with no need to specify an objective-case “it.” Alternatively, though, אֹתוֹ can be construed as an indirect object, as in this translation by Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses (Schocken, 1995), 87: “at the set-time of which God had spoken to him.” In that reading, Abraham is made present in this brief narrative sequence, albeit in an adjunct role and relegated to a pronoun in place of his name.
See Rashi and R. David Kimḥi, and similarly, Fox: “… all who hear it will laugh for me” (The Five Books of Moses, 87). Another possible rendering is “… laugh at me.” See R. Yosef Bekhor Shor, and similarly, Robert Alter: “Whoever hears will laugh at me” (The Hebrew Bible [W. W. Norton, 2019], 1:68).
In the annunciation scene (Gen 18:11), the narrator referred to both parents as old. Here, Sarah pins that label on Abraham alone.
This concise statement of these features of biblical narrative appears in Yair Zakovitch, “Reading Biblical Narrative,” in The Jewish Study Bible, 2nd ed., ed. Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler (Oxford University Press, 2014), 2191–2201 [p. 2195]. For a classic treatment of this topic, see Erich Auerbach, Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature, trans. Willard R. Trask, fiftieth anniversary ed., (Princeton University Press, 2003).
As Noam Zion has pointed out (private communication), the naming of a child in Genesis strays a bit from that practice, usually offering an explicit reflection of the mother’s feelings in response to the birth.
For a book-length exposition of this tool of literary analysis applied to biblical texts, see Gary Yamasaki, Perspective Criticism: Point of View and Evaluative Guidance in Biblical Narrative (Cascade Books, 2012).
For example, we experience Creation in Genesis 1:1–2:3 from the perspective of the Creator. We experience the events leading to the Exodus from Egypt looking over the shoulders, as it were, of Moses and sometimes Aaron. We mostly see and hear, and thus know, what they see and hear and know. For more on how the study of filmmaking techniques can elucidate biblical narrative, see Gary Yamasaki, Insights from Filmmaking for Analyzing Biblical Narrative (Fortress, 2016).
Genesis Rabbah employs a play on words here, between לִזְקֻנָיו (lizqunav, “in his old age”) andזִיו אִיקוֹנִין (ziv ikonin, “the radiance of [his] features”).
Unless otherwise noted, translations of rabbinic texts are by the author and the editors.
Editor’s note: On what Sarah feared from Ishmael, see Rachel Adelman, “The Expulsion of Ishmael: Who Is Being Tried?” TheTorah (2016).
Midrash Tanḥuma (printed edition), on Genesis 22:4, has Abraham weigh what to tell her:
תנחומא וירא כב אָמַר אַבְרָהָם, מָה אֶעֱשֶׂה, אִם אֲגַלֶּה לְשָׂרָה, נָשִׁים דַּעְתָּן קַלָּה עֲלֵיהֶן בְּדָבָר קָטָן, כָּל שֶׁכֵּן בְּדָבָר גָּדוֹל כָּזֶה. וְאִם לֹא אֲגַלֶּה לָהּ וְאֶגְנְבֶנּוּ מִמֶּנָּה בְּעֵת שֶׁלֹּא תִרְאֶה אוֹתוֹ, תַּהֲרֹג אֶת עַצְמָהּ. … אָמַר לָהּ … וְיֵשׁ מָקוֹם אֶחָד רָחוֹק מִמֶּנּוּ מְעַט שֶׁשָּׁם מְחַנְּכִין אֶת הַנְּעָרִים, אֶקָּחֶנּוּ וַאֲחַנְּכֶנּוּ שָׁם. אָמְרָה לוֹ: לֵךְ לְשָׁלוֹם.
Tanḥuma, Vayera 22 Abraham said, “What shall I do? If I reveal it to Sarah—women are easily unsettled over a small matter, all the more so over a matter as great as this. And if I do not reveal it to her, and steal him away from her when she is not looking, she will kill herself.” … He said to her, “… There is a place a little distance from here where they educate young boys. I will take him and educate him there.” She said to him, “Go in peace.”
Editor’s note: On Sarah’s absence from the story and the traditions that fill it, see Jason Kalman, “Sarah’s Response to the Binding of Isaac in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam,” TheTorah (2025).
Ramban (Nahmanides, 13th century) on Genesis 23:2 sees the problem and rejects the reading that they lived apart:
רמב"ן בראשית כג:ב וְאֵין זֶה לוֹמַר שֶׁהָיָה עוֹמֵד שָׁם מִמָּה שֶׁכָּתוּב "וַיֵּשֶׁב אַבְרָהָם בִּבְאֵר שָׁבַע", כִּי אֵיךְ תִּהְיֶה שָׂרָה בְּחֶבְרוֹן.
Ramban, Gen 23:2 This does not mean that he was living there, on the basis of what is written, “Abraham stayed in Beer-sheba,” for how then would Sarah be in Hebron?
Editor’s note: See also Wendy Zierler, “Sarah Finally Separates Herself from Abraham,” TheTorah (2024); Aaron Koller, “Abraham Passes the Test of the Akedah But Fails as a Father,” TheTorah (2019).
