Sarai Is Taken to Pharaoh's Palace, James Tissot, circa 1896-1902. The Jewish Museum
Sarai Suffers in Pharaoh’s Palace, and Abram Is Rewarded?!
When Pharaoh takes Sarai into his palace, rather than being a passive victim, as in the Bible, the midrash has Sarai taking her complaint directly to God and commanding an angel regarding her protection and the punishment of her captors.
Published: October 23, 2023
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Last Updated: September 7, 2026
Abram and Sarai have not yet received their new names Abraham and Sarah (cf. Gen 17:5, 15).
Biblical translations follow the NJPS, with modifications.
A phrase coined by Phyllis Trible in 1984. See Phyllis Trible, Texts of Terror (40th Anniversary Edition): Literary-Feminist Readings of Biblical Narratives (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2022). While the four case studies in Trible’s original publication do not include Sarai’s story, the phrase “texts of terror” refers to any text in which violence against women is implied.
Editor’s note: On the biblical motif of Israelites gaining wealth in a foreign land, see Hava Shalom-Guy, “Giving Israel Gold and Silver, Cyrus Improves on a Biblical Motif,” TheTorah (2020).
Editor’s note: For a discussion of the relationship between this story and the Exodus, see Christoph Levin, “Abraham and Sarah in Egypt: A Story Composed to Prefigure the Exodus,” TheTorah (2020).
Wilda C. Gafney, Womanist Midrash: A Reintroduction to the Woman of the Torah and the Throne (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2017), 33.
The midrash translation follows Harry Freedman, Midrash Rabbah, ed. Harry Freedman and Maurice Simon (London: Soncino Press, 1961), with modifications.
In the midrash it is the beams of the house themselves who seem to interpret the scripture. The frame of the house frames the story, retelling it from their perspective. Whereas the biblical narrative is silent about the events that occurred inside of Pharaoh’s house, overlooking Sarai’s experience, the midrash moves inward at the invitation of the walls themselves.
Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, The Particulars of Rapture: Reflections on Exodus (New York: Schocken, 2011), 9.
