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 inGe 16:1;25:12;29:24,29;Pr 30:23;Jer 34:11,16;Joe 2:29; to translate the latter word inEx 23:12;Jud 19:19;2Sa 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 inRu 2:13;1Sa 1:18;28:21;2Sa 14:6;2Ki 4:2,16; it translates the latter word in the same sense inRu 3:9;1Sa 1:16;25:24,28,31,41;2Sa 20:17;1Ki 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,1Sa 1:11;Ps 86:16;116:16.
In the New Testament it occurs 3 t, in a religious sense, as the translation of doule, "a female slave" (Lu 1:38,48;Ac 2:18), and twice (Ga 4:22,23) as the translation of paidiske, the King James Version "bondmaid."
William Joseph McGlothlin