Handmaid

HANDMAID hand'-mad:

Which appears often in the Old Testament, but seldom in the New Testament, like bondmaid, is used to translate two Hebrew words (shiphchah, and 'amah) both of which normally mean a female slave. It is used to translate the former word in the ordinary sense of female slave in Genesis 16:1; 25:12; 29:24,29; Proverbs 30:23; Jeremiah 34:11,16; Joel 2:29; to translate the latter word in Exodus 23:12; Judges 19:19; 2 Samuel 6:20. It is used as a term of humility and respectful self-depreciation in the presence of great men, prophets and kings, to translate the former word in Ruth 2:13; 1 Samuel 1:18; 28:21; 2 Samuel 14:6; 2 Kings 4:2,16; it translates the latter word in the same sense in Ruth 3:9; 1 Samuel 1:16; 25:24,28,31,41; 2 Samuel 20:17; 1 Kings 1:13,17; 3:20. It is also used to express a sense of religious humility in translating the latter word only, and appears in this sense in but three passages, 1 Samuel 1:11; Psalms 86:16; 116:16.

In the New Testament it occurs 3 t, in a religious sense, as the translation of doule, "a female slave" (Luke 1:38,48; Acts 2:18), and twice (Galatians 4:22,23) as the translation of paidiske, the King James Version "bondmaid."

William Joseph McGlothlin

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Bibliography Information

Orr, James, M.A., D.D. General Editor. "Entry for 'HANDMAID'".  "International Standard Bible Encyclopedia".  1915.