maidservant
a.mah denotes a female household servant, including women who identify themselves deferentially as another's servant.
The term most often identifies a female servant within a household or under a master’s authority, including legal and domestic contexts. It also occurs as a woman’s deferential self-designation when addressing a superior, and in family descriptions such as a son born to, or a person identified through, a female servant.
Senses in use
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Female servant in household or legal settings · dominant
In Exodus 21:20, Exodus 21:26, and Exodus 21:27, the construct form occurs in laws concerning harm done to a male servant or female servant; Exodus 21:32 likewise places the absolute form in compensation for an ox that gores such a person. In Deuteronomy 5:14 the APB renders a household list in which male and female servants are to rest, while Deuteronomy 15:17 extends a lifelong-servant instruction to the female servant.
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Deferential self-designation before a superior · common
Women use the construct form for themselves while making appeals or speaking respectfully: in 1 Samuel 1:11 the speaker asks that her affliction be seen and remembered, and in 2 Samuel 14:16 she asks the king for deliverance for herself and her son. In 1 Samuel 25:41, the speaker offers herself for the lowly task of washing her lord's servants' feet; Ruth 3:9 combines self-identification with a request for protection.
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Female servant in family identification · occasional
The noun can identify a woman in relation to a child or household line. In Genesis 21:10 the APB renders the repeated phrase concerning a female servant and her son, and Genesis 21:13 speaks of that servant’s son; Psalm 116:16 identifies the speaker as the son of the LORD's female servant.
In the Anselm Project Bible: Across these verses, the APB commonly uses “maidservant” for the term, including household, legal, and self-referential contexts. Some clauses use “female servant” or “servant”; Those English choices should be read as renderings of the clause rather than exact lexical equivalents in every instance.