Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, “After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?”
Parallel translations
- WEB Sarah laughed within herself, saying, “After I have grown old will I have pleasure, my lord being old also?”
- KJV Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?
- BSB So she laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?”
- NASB So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have become old, am I to have pleasure, my lord being old also?”
- NLT So she laughed silently to herself and said, “How could a worn-out woman like me enjoy such pleasure, especially when my master—my husband—is also so old?”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Sarah laughs to herself in disbelief at the thought of bearing a child in old age.
Overview
Her inward laughter mingles doubt with the sheer improbability of the promise. Though her response is flawed, Scripture later commends her faith (Hebrews 11:11), showing God's grace toward weak believers. The episode reminds us that God's promises often outrun our ability to imagine them.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Gen 17:17Then Abraham fell on his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, “Will a child be born to him who is one hundred years old? Will Sarah, who is ninety years old, give birth?”
- 1 Pet 3:6as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, whose children you now are, if you do well, and are not put in fear by any terror.
- Luke 1:18–20Zacharias said to the angel, “How can I be sure of this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years.”
- Luke 1:34–35Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, seeing I am a virgin?”
- Gen 18:13Yahweh said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Will I really bear a child, yet I am old?’
- Gen 21:6–7Sarah said, “God has made me laugh. Everyone who hears will laugh with me.”
- Heb 11:11–12By faith, even Sarah herself received power to conceive, and she bore a child when she was past age, since she counted him faithful who had promised.
- Ps 126:2Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing. Then they said among the nations, “Yahweh has done great things for them.”
- Eph 5:33Nevertheless each of you must also love his own wife even as himself; and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
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Christ at the center
From the first promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent (3:15), through Abraham's blessing to all nations and Judah's coming ruler, Genesis sows every seed that flowers in Christ — the true offspring, the better Adam, the ram caught for Isaac.
How Genesis 18:12 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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