Hagar

Hagar is the Egyptian slave of Sarai who becomes Abram's wife at her mistress's direction, bears Ishmael, is twice driven into the wilderness, and twice meets the angel of Yahweh there. Her descendants persist as desert peoples on Israel's borders, and Paul finally takes her name as the figure of the covenant from Sinai.

The Egyptian Slave in Sarai's House

The first introduction is by household and by ethnicity. "Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bore him no [children]: and she had a female slave, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar" (Gen 16:1). The proposal that follows comes from Sarai herself: "Now seeing that Yahweh has restrained me from bearing; enter my slave, I pray you; it may be that I will obtain [children] by her. And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai" (Gen 16:2). The transaction is then formal: "And Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her slave, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to Abram her husband to be his wife" (Gen 16:3).

What follows is collapse. "And he entered Hagar, and she became pregnant: and when she saw that she had become pregnant, her mistress was despised in her eyes" (Gen 16:4). Sarai turns the grievance back on Abram — "My wrong be on you: I gave my slave into your bosom; and when she saw that she had become pregnant, I was despised in her eyes: Yahweh judge between me and you" (Gen 16:5) — and Abram refuses to intervene: "Look, your slave is in your hand; do to her that which is good in your eyes. And Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her face" (Gen 16:6).

The Angel at the Spring

Hagar's first wilderness encounter happens on the way back to Egypt. "And the angel of Yahweh found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur" (Gen 16:7). The interrogation is gentle and exact: "Hagar, Sarai's slave, where did you come from? And where are you going? And she said, I am fleeing from the face of my mistress Sarai" (Gen 16:8). The command and the promise are then placed against each other. She is told to return — "Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hands" (Gen 16:9) — and she is told what her seed will become: "I will greatly multiply your seed, it will be too many to count" (Gen 16:10).

The naming of the son comes from the angel directly. "Look, you are pregnant, and will give birth to a son; and you will name him Ishmael, because Yahweh has heard your affliction" (Gen 16:11). His character is given with him: "And he will be [as] a wild donkey among man; his hand [will be] against everyone, and everyone's hand against him; and he will stay across from all his brothers" (Gen 16:12).

Hagar is the first person in the canon to give Yahweh a name. "And she named [the Speech of] Yahweh who spoke to her, 'El-Roi,': for she said, Do I still see now [even] after my vision? Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; look, it is between Kadesh and Bered" (Gen 16:13-14). She returns and bears: "And Hagar bore Abram a son: and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. And Abram was eighty-six years old, when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram" (Gen 16:15-16).

Cast Out After Isaac

Fourteen years and Isaac's birth later, the household becomes untenable a second time. "And Sarah became pregnant, and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him" (Gen 21:2). At the weaning feast, "Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking" (Gen 21:9). Sarah's demand is absolute: "Cast out this slave and her son. For the son of this slave will not be heir with my son, even with Isaac" (Gen 21:10). Abraham resists — "And the thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight on account of his son" (Gen 21:11) — but God overrules: "Don't let it be grievous in your sight because of the lad, and because of your slave. In all that Sarah says to you, listen to her voice. For in Isaac will your seed be called. And also of the son of the slave I will make into a nation, because he is your seed" (Gen 21:12-13).

The provisioning is sparse and the dispatch is dawn-early. "And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread and a bottle of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and [gave her] the boy, and sent her away. And she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beer-sheba" (Gen 21:14).

The second wilderness meeting answers the first. "And God heard the voice of the lad. And the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said to her, What ails you, Hagar? Don't be afraid. For God has heard the voice of the lad where he is. Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in your hand. For I will make him a great nation" (Gen 21:17-18). Provision follows the promise: "And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. And she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink" (Gen 21:19). Hagar then sets up the household into which her line will marry: "And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran. And his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt" (Gen 21:21).

The Twelve Princes from Hagar

The genealogical record carries her name and ethnicity forward. "Now these are the generations of Ishmael, Abraham's son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah's slave, bore to Abraham" (Gen 25:12). Twelve sons are listed by name — Nebaioth, Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah (Gen 25:13-15) — and the formula closes the unit: "These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names, by their villages, and by their encampments. Twelve princes according to their nations" (Gen 25:16). The shape of the promise to Abraham over Ishmael — "twelve princes he will beget, and I will make him a great nation" (Gen 17:20) — is there fulfilled.

The Hagrites in Israel's History

Hagar's line surfaces later as a hostile neighbor on the eastern side of the Jordan. The Reubenites' war is recalled: "And in the days of Saul, they made war with the Hagrites, who fell by their hand; and they dwelt in their tents throughout all the [land] east of Gilead" (1Chr 5:10). The fuller account gives the names of allied tribes — "And they made war with the Hagrites, with Jetur, and Naphish, and Nodab" (1Chr 5:19) — and frames the outcome theologically: "And they were helped against them, and the Hagrites were delivered into their hand, and all who were with them; for they cried to God in the battle, and he was entreated of them, because they put their trust in him" (1Chr 5:20). The plunder is staggering — "their camels fifty thousand, and of sheep two hundred and fifty thousand, and of donkeys two thousand, and of the souls of man a hundred thousand" — and the war itself is read as divine: "For there fell many slain, because the war was of God. And they dwelt in their stead until the captivity" (1Chr 5:21-22).

The Asaph psalm groups her descendants with the standing coalition against Israel: "The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites; Moab, and the Hagarenes" (Ps 83:6).

The Mother of the Sinai Covenant

Paul reaches back into this material for the structure of an argument. "Which things contain an allegory: for these [women] are two covenants; one from mount Sinai, bearing children to slavery, which is Hagar" (Gal 4:24). The geographical identification is then made explicit: "Now this Hagar is mount Sinai in Arabia and answers to the Jerusalem that now is: for she works as a slave along with her children" (Gal 4:25). The slave who first bore "to slavery" in Abram's tent becomes, under Paul's reading, the figure of the covenant that does the same.