Genesis 16:8 - Exposition

And he said, Hagar, Sarai's maid . Declining to recognize her marriage with the patriarch, the angel reminds her of her original position as a bondwoman, from which liberty was not to be obtained by flight, but by manumission. Whence camest thou? and whither wilt thou go! And she maid, I flee from the face of my mistress Sarai . "Her answer testifies to the oppression she had experienced, but also to the voice of her own conscience" (Lange).