Setting: Genesis 16:1-2
Abram is the son of Terah, the son of Nahor, the son of Serug, the son of Reu.A servant named Maruduk-Bal-Idinna, from the children of Reu, came to us there in the deserts of Canaan, and told us that Reu, son of Peleg, had died at the age of two hundred and thirty nine. This was an event of great importance all over the world, for this great man was the descendent of such giants as Selah, Nimrod, and Muak, Eber, Azurad, and Sina'ar.
Yet however important this death was to the world, it was even more important to Abram, whose bowels were wrenched at the news so that his gray head sank down to the earth in mourning.
I think that his own mortality began to weigh on him then as well, and he considered the fact that from time immemorial, his fathers had been given sons. I think he considered whether now, after twenty generations of life, death would swallow up his family. How can any man bear the pressure of continuing that great chain of life that goes back into the shadows of unknown time?
I was angry with him then, for loving me with the purity that he did. For he sought comfort in my arms but he never breathed a word of his anguish at his own childlessness. And what is more, he sought no other wife in which to plant his seed.
Yes, it was for this that I was angry. Angry at him for being a man of such pure principle that he would live out his days in misery, and watch his dynasty wither, before so much as visiting a common servant girl, let alone taking along another wife.
I decided, for the good of all mankind and for the sake of my husband's own soul, to tell him plainly what he must do.