16:6 as it pleaseth thee. The Nuzi tablets mentioned above also allowed the wife, if she so chose, to order both the mistress and the child to leave.

16:7 angel of the LORD. This is the first specific reference to angels in Scripture (though angels are called “sons of God” in Genesis 6:2). Here it is “the angel of Jehovah,” specifically identified (Genesis 16:13) as Jehovah Himself. The term “the angel of the LORD,” therefore, seems often to refer to Christ Himself in a theophany.