Sarai said to Abram: this does not introduce a dialogue with Abram but introduces the problem and Sarai’s solution to what she recognizes as something caused by the LORD. Sarai’s suggestion to her husband is in line with the family law of the Hurrians, another society in that region at the time of Abram, as explained in detail in a text from Nuzi that Speiser discusses at some length. This law provides that, if a marriage is childless, the wife is required to provide a concubine, but she then has all the legal rights to the offspring.
Behold now translates an expression equivalent to “Please listen,” “Listen, I beg you,” “Kindly hear what I have to say.”
The LORD has prevented me from bearing children is literally “the LORD has kept me from giving birth.” For the same expression see references in Gen 16.1. We may translate, for example, “The LORD will not let me have children” or “The LORD keeps me from giving birth.”
Go in to my maid: in 6.4 the idiom for “have sexual relations” is “come in to.” Here the sense is the same. See comments on 6.4. Sarai gives Abram the right to have sexual intercourse with Hagar, who apparently has no say in the matter. The translation of this expression should be such that it can be read in public. Many languages use expressions such as “sleep with,” “stay with,” “lie down with,” “spend the night with,” “join together with.”
It may be that I shall obtain children by her is literally “perhaps I may be built up from her.” This Hebrew idiom is based on the verb baneh “to build.” Speiser says the verb is an obvious wordplay on Hebrew ben “son.” The thought expressed is equivalent to “Maybe she will enable me to have a son,” “Maybe I will have a son through her,” or “Maybe she will have a son and he will be mine.”
Translators vary in the way they handle the idiomatic phrase “I may be built up from her.” Good News Translation refers to “a child,” Biblia Dios Habla Hoy uses the plural, New English Bible has “family,” Bible en français courant, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible use “son.” The task of translation is further complicated by the idea that Sarai will be regarded as the mother of another woman’s child. In some languages it is possible to say, for example, “Perhaps I will have a son by means of her.” However, in other languages it may be necessary to say, for example, “Perhaps she will have a son and I will become its mother,” or “Perhaps she will have a son and people will call me [regard me as] his mother.” A good suggestion from one translation team is “You’d better sleep with my working girl. Perhaps we can make a family with her.”
And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai means that Abram listened to what Sarai had proposed and accepted it or, as Good News Translation says, “Abram agreed with what Sarai said.” We may also say, for example, “Abram said ‘Yes’ to what Sarai proposed to do.”
Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .