SARAH (rlit:), a .princess, a noble lady, being the fem. of sar, a prince," a nobleman ;' Sept. Z(1/3/3a), the wife of Abraham, and mother of Isaac. She was at first called ',lb, Sarai, the ety _ mology and signification of which are obscure. Ewald (Gram. sec. 324) explains it to mean tentious, quarrelsome (from the root MO, which is perhaps the most natural sense ; and the mere change of the name to one more honourable may imply that there was sometbing unpleasant in the one previously borne (Gen. xvii. 5, seq.) As Sarah never appears but in connection with some circumstance in which her husband was principally concerned, all the facts of her history have already been given in the article ABRAHAM, and her con duct to Hagar is considered in the article which bears her name. These facts being familiar to the reader, a few supplementary remarks on particular points are alone required in this place.
There are two opinions with respect to the parentage of Sarah. Many intcrprcters suppose that she was the daughter of Haran, the elder son of Abraham's father Terah (probably by a former wife), and the same person with the Iscah who is named as one of the daughters of Haran (Gen. xi. 29). In this case she was niece of Abraham, although only ten years younger than her husband, and the sister of Milcah and of Lot. The reasons for this conclusion are of much weight. It is cer tain that Nahor, the surviving brother of Abraham, married Milcab, the other daughter of Haran, and the manner in which Abraham's marriage with Sarah is mentioned would alone suggest that he took the remaining daughter. Abram and Nahor took them wives : the name of Abram's wife was Sarai ; and the name of Nahor's wife Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and the father of Iscah' (Ge'n. xi. 29). Here most of the Jewish writers say that Iscah is Sarai ; and without supposing this to be the case, it is difficult to un derstand for what reason it should be so pointedly noted that Haran, who was the father of Micah, was also the father of Iscah. Besides, if Sarai is not Iscah, no account is given by Moses of her de scent ; and it can hardly be supposed that he would omit it, as it must have been agreeable to a people so careful of genealogy to know whence they were descended, both by the father's and mother's side.
Again, when Terah leaves Ur of the Chaldees, it is said that Terah took Abram his son, and Lot his son's son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife ; and they went forth,' etc. (Gen. xi 31) ; on which Aben Ezra observes that if Sarai had been (as some suppose) the daughter of Terah and sister of Abram, the text would doubtless have run : Terah took Abram his son, and Sarai his daughter, the wife of Abram.' The double rela tionship to Lot which such an alliance would pro duce may also help to the better understanding of some points in the connection between Lot and Abraham. Against this view we have to produce the assertion of Abraham himself, that Sarai was his half-sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother' (Gen. xx. 12) : but this is held by many to mean no more than that Haran her father was his half-brother ; for the colloquial usage of the Hebrews in this mafter makes it easy to understand that he might call a niece a sister, and a granddaughter a daughter. In general discourse daughter' comprised any and every female descendant, and sister' any and every consanguineous relationship.
That Sarah had great beauty appears from the precautions which Abraham took to g-uard himself and her from the dangers it was likely to occasion. And that his was not too partial an estimate of her attractions is evinced by the transactions in Egypt and at Gerar (Gen. xii. 15 ; xxi. 2). In the former case the commendations which the princes of Pharaoh bestowed upon the charms of the lovely stranger have been supposed by some to have been owing to the contrast which her fresh Mesopotamian complexion offered to the dusky hue of their own beauties. But so far as climate is concerned, the nearer Syria could offer complexions as fair as hers ; and, moreover, a people trained by their habits to admire dusky' beauties, were not likely to be inordinately attracted by a fresh complexion.