שָׂרַי
Sarai
BDB lists 2 entries for ‘Sarai’ fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Noun type
- Proper
- A name of a specific person, place, or people (e.g. Abraham, Zion, Israel).
Every verse where H8297 appears — 13 distinct verses across 1 book. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Hebrew form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Hebrew Bible; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences are not indexed here.
Genesis 13 verses
- Genesis 11:29 שָׂרָ֔י n Proper Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran who was also the father of Iscah.
- Genesis 11:30 שָׂרַ֖י n Proper Sarai was barren. She had no child.
- Genesis 11:31 שָׂרַ֣י n Proper Terah took Abram his son, Lot the son of Haran, his son's son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife. They went forth from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan. They came to Haran, and lived there.
- Genesis 12:5 שָׂרַ֨י n Proper Abram took Sarai his wife, Lot his brother's son, all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls who they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan. Into the land of Canaan they came.
- Genesis 12:11 שָׂרַ֣י n Proper It happened, when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, "See now, I know that you are a beautiful woman to look on.
- Genesis 12:17 שָׂרַ֖י n Proper Yahweh plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife.
- Genesis 16:1 וְ/שָׂרַי֙ conj + n Proper Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bore him no children. She had a handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.
- Genesis 16:2 שָׂרַ֜י שָׂרָֽי n Proper n Proper Sarai said to Abram," See now, Yahweh has restrained me from bearing. Please go in to my handmaid. It may be that I will obtain children by her." Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.
- Genesis 16:3 שָׂרַ֣י n Proper Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her handmaid, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to Abram her husband to be his wife.
- Genesis 16:5 שָׂרַ֣י n Proper Sarai said to Abram, "This wrong is your fault. I gave my handmaid into your bosom, and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes. Yahweh judge between me and you."
- Genesis 16:6 שָׂרַ֗י שָׂרַ֔י n Proper n Proper But Abram said to Sarai, "Behold, your maid is in your hand. Do to her whatever is good in your eyes." Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her face.
- Genesis 16:8 שָׂרַ֛י שָׂרַ֣י n Proper n Proper He said, "Hagar, Sarai's handmaid, where did you come from? Where are you going?" She said, "I am fleeing from the face of my mistress Sarai."
- Genesis 17:15 שָׂרַ֣י שָׂרָ֑י n Proper n Proper God said to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but her name will be Sarah.
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
The Hebrew name שרי centers on the idea of “Sarai.” The word gravitates to Genesis (100%). It turns up in 13 verses across 1 book, an uncommon footprint. Its earliest occurrence is Genesis 11:29. For the data behind this summary, explore 13-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H8297 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 13
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 13 distinct verses.
- 1 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 1 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #1,671
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,671 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 13 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Genesis 13 verses 100%
By section of the Old Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 13 distinct verses.
- Torah (Pentateuch) 13 verses · 100%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
BDB lists this Strong’s number as 2 distinct words (homographs). Each count above pools all of them and is not split by sense — see the Senses section below. A low-frequency rendering may belong to a different one of those words, not the primary meaning.
- King James Version†: Sarai 14×
- American Standard Version†: Sarai 14×
- Berean Standard Bible†: Sarai 16×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: Sarai 15×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H8297 across 17† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 3 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H8297 across 17† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 3 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H8297 across 16† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Not rendered by a distinct English word in 1 further occurrence.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H8297 across 17† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 2 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Senses in BDB
The 2 senses BDB distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency or importance). The full entry — with sub-senses — is in the Lexicon Entry tab.
- Sarai = "princess"
- original name of Sarah the wife of Abram or Abraham
Word origin
n.pr.f. wife of Abram (NöZMG xiii (1888), 484 Ges§ 801 Köii. 1, 427 make = foregoing, with old fem. ending י—ַ; >LagBN 92, Anm.*, emphasizing diff. in 𝔊, der.froma √ شرى, and cp. شراة, name of a barren mt.; cf. RS יִשְׂרָאֵל supr., sub I. שׂרה);—𝔊 Σαρα;—Gn 11:30 (J), v 31 (P), 12:5, 11, 17; 16:1, 2, 3, 5, 6(×2), 8(×2) (all J), 17:15 (P); שָׂרָ֑י 11:29 (J), 16:2 (J), 17:15 (P).
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from שר (sar) (H8269) — prince.
Jastrow Dictionary
A second Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon for comparison, covering Aramaic and post-biblical (Talmudic, Targumic, Midrashic) usage that the biblical-Hebrew BDB does not. Matched by lemma rather than by Strong’s number, so a lemma may carry more than one Jastrow headword (shown separately below), and the entries cover usage well beyond the Bible.
שְׁרֵי
- 1. to untie, unharness; to disengage, dismiss. Targ. O. Gen. XXIV, 32 וש׳ גמליא (ed. Berl. וש׳ מן ג׳; Y. ושָׁ׳ זממי ג׳ Pa.; h. text ויפתח). Targ. Job XXX, 11. Targ. O. Ex. III, 5 (h. text של); a. fr.—Pes. 113ᵃ שְׁרִי כיסך פתח שפיך untie thy purse (to receive the money), open thy bag (to deliver the goods), i.e. sell for cash. Snh. 98ᵃ כולהון שְׁרוֹ ואסירי … איהו ש׳ חד וכ׳ all of them untie and tie up (their sores) at once (untie all of them, and then tie them up), but he unties and ties up one at a time. Pesik. R. s. 22 [read:] שַׁרְתַּנְהוֹן … ע"ג סודרא she untied them (the two Denars), and placed them on the shawl. Y. Ber. II, 5ᵃ bot. אתת … ושַׁרְתוּן וכ׳ (fr. שרה, cmp. חֲמֵי) when prayer time came, he untied them (the coins), and gave them to R. H.; [read:] קטר פורתיה לפורתיה ויהבון לשמעיה ושרתון וערק he tied his (R. Ḥ’s) share to his own, and gave them to his servant, but he (the servant) untied them and ran away. Y. Meg. IV, 75ᵇ bot. שְׁרוֹן ליה וכ׳, v. סַפְרוּתָא. Y. Keth. XII, 35ᵃ שרון גרמון ומנוניה they dismissed themselves (resigned their office) and appointed him (Hillel) in their place; a. fr.—ש׳ תיגרא to solve a dispute, to settle or decide a case. Ned. 62ᵃ שְׁרוּ לי תיגראי ברישא take my case up first. Yeb. 100ᵃ שָׁרֵינָא וכ׳, v. תִּגְרָא I; a. e.
- 2. to allow, permit; to forgive; to absolve (= h. הִתִּיר). Targ. Y. Num. XXX, 3. Targ. Y. II, Gen. XXII, 14. Targ. Y. II, Num. XIV, 20; a. fr.—Kidd. 13ᵇ הוא אסרה והוא שַׁרְתָהּ (Rashi שרי לה) he tied her (by marrying her), and he untied her (through his death, that she can dispose of herself). Y. Ber. II, 5ᵇ אינון שַׁרְיָין ואינון אסרין do the same men permit and forbid? Y. Snh. VII, end, 25ᵈ [read:] שַׁרְיִי מה דעבדתין אמרה ליה לי נא שַׁרְיָיה undo what thou hast done (by charm); said she to him, I will not undo. Bab. Snh. 99ᵃ ש׳ ליה מריה וכ׳ the Lord forgive R. Hillel. Ab. Zar. 37ᵃ וקרו לן בית דינא שָׁרְיָא and they might call us a permitting court (of lax practice). Ib. כי שְׁרִיתוּהָ לאלתר שריתוה וכ׳ when you permitted her (to marry again), did you permit her to marry at once &c.? Ib. וקרו ליה יוסף שריא and they called him Joseph the permitter. Ib. אנא נמי שְׁרָאִי אחריתי Ms. M. (ed. אנא שרא, corr. acc.) I also permitted another thing (which was forbidden heretofore); a. v. fr.—Part. pass. שָׁרֵי, שַׁרְיָא; f. שַׁרְיָא. Targ. II Esth. III, 8 יומא ש׳ a permitted day (free for trade).—Bets. 3ᵇ לדידי אפי׳ … ש׳ according to my opinion it is permitted even on the first day. Ib. 22ᵃ אפי׳ בשבת ש׳ it is permitted even on the Sabbath. Ned. 62ᵃ ש׳ ליה לאינש לאודועי וכ׳ a man is permitted to make himself known (as a scholar) in a place where they do not know him; a. fr.
- 3. [to loosen the girdle,] to sit down for a meal; trnsf. to start, begin. Targ. Deut. XVI, 9 (O. ed. Berl. תְּשָׁרֵי, Pa.). Targ. II Esth. III, 7; a. fr.—Lam. R. to I, 1 (רבתי) כמה דשְׁרִין למיכל (ed. Wil. דשְׁרוֹ) when they sat down to eat. Y. Dem. I, 21ᵈ bot.; Y. Shek. V, 48ᵈ top שַׁרְיַית מנהקה (not שוריית) she began to bray; a. fr.—Trnsf. (cmp. meanings of b. h. יָאַל Hif.) to consent, be willing. Targ. Josh. VII, 7. Ib. XVII, 12. Targ. Job VI, 9; 28; a. fr.
- 4. to encamp, dwell, rest. Targ. I Sam. XXVI, 5. Targ. Num. II, 2, sq. Targ. Ex. XL, 35. Targ. Ps. XVI, 8, sq.; a. fr.—Y. Ter. VIII, 46ᵃ חמריא שרון וכ׳ ass-drivers took lodging in an inn. Lam. R. to I, 1 רבתי אשכח … שרון יתבין וכ׳ (חד מירוש׳) he found men that had taken lodging there, and sat eating and drinking. Y. Sabb. XIV, 14ᶜ bot. ע"י דהוה ש׳ תמן וכ׳ because he lived there (in Babylonia) &c. Gen. R. s. 20 ויתיר … שרי, v. פָּרָא II. Snh. 39ᵃ כל בי … שָׁרְיָא the Shechinah dwells wherever ten persons are assembled; a. fr.
- same,
- 1. to untie, loosen. Targ. Ps. XXX, 12 (ed. Wil. Pe.). Targ. Job XII, 18 (ed. Wil. מַשְׁרֵי Af.); a. e.
- 2. to begin. Targ. O. Deut. I, 5 (Y. שׁוֹרֵי Poel). Ib. II, 24 (O. ed. Vien. Pe.). Ib. 25. Targ. Jer. IV, 31; a. fr.—Targ. Prov. XIII, 12 דמְשָׁרֵי למעדריה (not משדי, v. Pesh. a. LXX) who begins to help himself (h. text תחלת ממשכה!).
- 3. to cause to rest, v. infra.
- 1. to untie, v. supra.
- 2. to cause to encamp or dwell, to let rest. Targ. Gen. II, 15. Targ. Jer. VII, 7. Targ. Ps. XXIII, 2. Ib. LXXIV, 2 Ms. (ed. Pa.); a. fr.—Sabb. 67ᵃ הסנה … א׳ קודשא וכ׳ O thornbush! not because thou art higher than all other trees did the Lord let his Presence rest upon thee &c. Koh. R. to III, 9, end כל … לא מַשְׁרִין וכ׳ (in the hereafter) they allow every one to dwell only with his fellow tradesmen; ib. beg. מתרין (corr. acc.); a. e.
- 1. to be untied, loosened. Targ. Is. V, 27.—Lev. R. s. 14, v. חֲבִילָא II; a. e.
- 2. to be permitted. Yeb. 106ᵃ כי היכי דתִישְׁתְּרִי לעלמא in order that she may be free to marry again. Bets. 2ᵇ יו"ט בעלמא תשתרי let it be permitted for use on any other Holy Day (not followed by the Sabbath); a. e.
- 3. to be begun, begin. Targ. Y. Gen. XXXVII, 17. Targ. Ps. CXIX, 96, v. שַׁכְלֵל.—Y. Ter. VIII, 46ᵃ מישרי נבח בהון (prob. to be read: אישרי) he began to bark at them; ib. מישרי מתרתר, v. תַּרְתֵּר.—[Lev. R. s. 13 אשתריתין, v. שְׁתַר.]
שָׂרַי
- (b. h.) pr. n. f. Sarai, the original name of Sarah. Ber. 13ᵃ, v. שָׂרָה. Ib. בתחלה … ש׳ לאומתה וכ׳ at first she was Sarai (a little princess) for her own people &c., v. שַׂר. Gen. R. s. 47; a. e.
שרי
- to dissolve, soak, steep. Naz. VI, 1 ש׳ פתו ביין וכ׳ if he (the Nazirite) steeped his bread in wine, and there is enough in both together to make up the size of an olive; Pes. 44ᵇ. Naz. 37ᵃ אם ש׳ ענביו במים וכ׳ if he steeped grapes in water, and a taste of wine remained in it. Pes. II, 7 אין שׁוֹרִין וכ׳ you dare not soak bran for chickens (on the Passover); ib. האשה לא תִשְׁרֶה וכ׳ a woman must not soak bran to take with her to the bathhouse. Sabb. I, 5 אין שורין … כדי שיִשּׁוֹרוּ וכ׳ you must not lay in ink-materials or dyes …, unless they can be dissolved (or soaked through) before the Sabbath sets in. Eduy. I, 8; a. fr.
- to be soaked, dissolved. Y. Ber. IX, 13ᵈ bot. כדי שתִּשָּׁרֶה וכ׳, v. מְגוּפָה; Y. Taan. I, 64ᵇ top שתשרף (corr. acc.). Gen. R. s. 17, end אדם … מיד היא נִשְׁרֵית … אינו נִשְׁרֶה man is made out of earth, when you put a drop of water on it, it is at once dissolved (soft), but woman is made of a bone, which is not dissolved, even if you let it lie in water for many days. Y. Sabb. XIV, 14ᶜ top כל … והיא נשרית … ושאינה נשרית וכ׳ when you put salt in, and it dissolves, it is called salt water, but when it is not dissolved, it is called halmé; a. e.—Sabb. I, 5 יִשּׁוֹרוּ (fr. שור or נשר), v. supra.
שרי ²
- cmp. preced.) to loosen, untie; (cmp. meaning of καταλύω) to take lodging; to rest, dwell. Snh. 11ᵃ יש … שראוי שתִּשְׁרֶה עליו שכינה there is one among you who deserves that the Shechinah should rest upon him. Ib. 65ᵇ כדי שתִּשְׁרֶה וכ׳, v. רָעֵב Hif. Ib. שׁוֹרָה עליו וכ׳ the spirit … comes down upon him. Y. Sabb. VIII, end, 11ᶜ רוח רעה שורה עליה an evil spirit rests upon it (it is injurious to health). Num. R. s. 132 אימתי שָׁרְתָה וכ׳ when did the Shechinah come down to rest on earth? When the Tabernacle was erected. Koh. R. to VII, 2 ושָׁרַת עליהם וכ׳ the holy spirit rested upon them. Midr. Till. to Ps. CXVI ומלאכי … ושׁוֹרִים ביניהם (not ושוררים) the ministering angels rejoice over them (the righteous that die), that they come to dwell among them; ed. Bub. שהוא בא ושורה וכ׳ that he (the righteous man) comes &c.; a. v. fr.—Part. pass. שָׁרוּי; f. שְׁרוּיָה; pl. שְׁרוּיִין; שְׁרוּיוֹת. Yeb. 62ᵇ he that has no wife, ש׳ בלא שמחה וכ׳ lives without joy, without blessing &c. Sot. 48ᵃ בזמן שישראל ש׳ בצער וכ׳ when Israel lives in trouble, and the nations in peace and happiness &c. Meg. 2ᵃ בזמן שהשנים … ש׳ על אדמתן when the years were properly regulated (without Roman interference), and the Israelites lived (undisturbed) on their soil; a. v. fr.
- 1. to cause to rest. Sabb. 139ᵃ אין הקב"ה מַשְׁרֶה וכ׳ the Lord does not let his Presence rest upon Israel, until the bad judges and officers cease to exist. Snh. 7ᵃ כל דיין … משרה a judge that administers true justice faithfully, causes the Shechinah to dwell in Israel. Gen. R. s. 7 מלך … ומשרה דיורין וכ׳ a human king builds a palace, and lets the inmates dwell in the upper and lower stories, הק"בה משרה … בחלל the Lord makes inmates dwell (even) in vacant space. Num. R. s. 136; a. fr.
- 2. (cmp. שֵׁירוּתָא) to board, provide a living for. Keth. V, 8 המשרה את אשתו וכ׳, v. שָׁלִישׁ. Ib. 107ᵃ כשה׳ לזו ולא ה׳ לזו when he provided for the one (his wife), but did not provide for the others (his children); a. e.
שָׁרִי
- , v. שָׁרִיתָא
A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Marcus Jastrow; London, Luzac, 1903) — Public Domain. Digitized via Sefaria. Digitized via Sefaria. Full attribution on Sources.
Forms in the corpus
The 11 distinct written forms H8297 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that state’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
| Form | Parsing | Example | Uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| שָׂרַ֣י | Noun, Proper | Genesis 11:31 | 6 |
| שָׂרַ֖י | Noun, Proper | Genesis 11:30 | 2 |
| וְ/שָׂרַי֙ | Noun, Proper | Genesis 16:1 | 1 |
| שָׂרַ֔י | Noun, Proper | Genesis 16:6 | 1 |
| שָׂרַ֗י | Noun, Proper | Genesis 16:6 | 1 |
| שָׂרַ֛י | Noun, Proper | Genesis 16:8 | 1 |
| שָׂרַ֜י | Noun, Proper | Genesis 16:2 | 1 |
| שָׂרַ֨י | Noun, Proper | Genesis 12:5 | 1 |
| שָׂרָ֑י | Noun, Proper | Genesis 17:15 | 1 |
| שָׂרָ֔י | Noun, Proper | Genesis 11:29 | 1 |
| שָׂרָֽי | Noun, Proper | Genesis 16:2 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H8297, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derives from
Shares the same root
Compare all same-root words → They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Bible dictionary
Public-domain dictionary articles matched to this entry by name (Sarai). A biblical name can be shared by more than one person or place, so an article may treat several.
Easton's Bible Dictionary · M. G. Easton, 1897
My princess, the name originally borne by Sarah (Gen. 11:31; 17:15).
Smith's Bible Dictionary · William Smith, 1863
(my princess) the original name of Sarah wife of Abraham.
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary · Roswell D. Hitchcock, 1869
my lady; my princess
Classic public-domain reference works; full attribution on Sources.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 13 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 13 Hebrew verses it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.
Read these verses in the Septuagint
This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.
