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 Gen 16:1; Gen 25:12; Gen 29:24; Gen 29:29; Prov 30:23; Jer 34:11; Jer 34:16; Joel 2:29; to translate the latter word in Exod 23:12; Judg 19:19; 2 Sam 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 Sam 1:18; 1 Sam 28:21; 2 Sam 14:6; 2 Kgs 4:2; 2 Kgs 4:16; it translates the latter word in the same sense in Ruth 3:9; 1 Sam 1:16; 1 Sam 25:24; 1 Sam 25:28; 1 Sam 25:31; 1 Sam 25:41; 2 Sam 20:17; 1 Kgs 1:13; 1 Kgs 1:17; 1 Kgs 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 Sam 1:11; Ps 86:16; Ps 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; Luke 1:48; Acts 2:18), and twice (Gal 4:22; Gal 4:23) as the translation of paidiske, the King James Version "bondmaid."

William Joseph McGlothlin