Genesis 16:6
But Abram said unto Sarai, Behold, thy maid is in thy hand; do to her as it pleaseth thee. And when Sarai dealt hardly with her, she fled from her face. But Abram said unto Sarai, Behold, thy maid is in thy hand; do to her as it pleaseth thee. And when Sarai dealt hardly with her, she fled from her face.
Genesis 16:6 belongs to Abraham and Sarah's failure to wait in confiding faith for the promised son and to endure the test of faith in God's unlimited power to fulfill the promise in His own way, and that distrust led them to bring Hagar into the marriage and brought unhappiness upon themselves. Abraham had taken Hagar only at Sarah's special request, and when Sarah complained of Hagar's conduct and charged him with wrong, he answered in grief and perplexity that he would not have taken her except at Sarah's request. Instead of sending Hagar away, he left Hagar, his servant and wife, under Sarah's control and authority to deal with and treat as she wished, refusing to send her away because she was to be the mother of his child through whom he thought the promise would be fulfilled.
Hagar had become proud, boastful and contemptuous, carrying herself haughtily before Sarah and flattering herself that she would be the mother of the great nation promised to Abraham. Abraham was caught between Sarah's complaints about Hagar and Hagar's complaints of abuse from Sarah, torn between redressing Hagar and increasing the jealousy and unhappiness of Sarah, his first and much-loved wife, so the conflict made both Abraham and Sarah unhappy and left Sarah jealous and unhappy. When Sarah dealt harshly with Hagar, Hagar fled from her face, and the angel of God met the fugitive to comfort her and reprove her haughty conduct, bidding her return to her mistress and submit herself under her hands.
Sarah, as Abraham's only true wife, had the right to require Hagar her rival to be sent away, and the Lord did not reprove her for doing so, since no other person was entitled to share her rights as wife and mother. The verse thus teaches that the marriage relation and the rights and happiness belonging to it must be carefully guarded, even at great sacrifice.