NOTES for Gen 16:1-16

¹Now Sarai Abram's wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.

²And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai.

³And Sarai Abram's wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife.

⁴And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived: and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes.

⁵And Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be upon thee: I have given my maid into thy bosom; and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes: the LORD judge between me and thee.

⁶But Abram said unto Sarai, Behold, thy maid is in thy hand; do to her as it pleaseth thee. And when Sarai dealt hardly with her, she fled from her face.

⁷And the angel of the LORD found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur.

⁸And he said, Hagar, Sarai's maid, whence camest thou? and whither wilt thou go? And she said, I flee from the face of my mistress Sarai.

⁹And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands.

¹⁰And the angel of the LORD said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude.

¹¹And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.

¹²And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.

¹³And she called the name of the LORD that spake unto her, Thou God seest me: for she said, Have I also here looked after him that seeth me?

¹⁴Wherefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered.

¹⁵And Hagar bare Abram a son: and Abram called his son's name, which Hagar bare, Ishmael.

¹⁶And Abram was fourscore and six years old, when Hagar bare Ishmael to Abram.

The story with Hagar cannot help appearing, at the very least, strange to a modern reader. Meanwhile, in the age of the Patriarchs people often acted this way, since a child, even one born from a slave woman, could still inherit from the master of the house if the master of the house was his father. And among ancient people, childlessness was considered a grave misfortune and a sign of the gods' anger.

In Abraham's case the situation was made even heavier by Sarah's impatient expectation: after all, she knew about the covenant and about the promises God had given no worse than her husband did. Meanwhile, ten years had already passed (v. 3), and Sarah naturally grew more and more anxious: she was aging, her husband was aging too, and the heir promised by God still had not appeared (vv. 1-2). Everything for which Abraham had once left the land of his fathers and moved to a foreign, unknown country was collapsing. And in Sarah's mind a thought arose by itself: why not speed up the course of events? Is this what God is waiting for from her? Of course, the child of a slave woman is not one's own, but at least he would still be considered an heir, and God's work would continue.

So Ishmael came into the world, and with him contempt and jealousy (v. 4). It would appear, what rivalry can there be between a mistress and a slave woman? But slavery among the Hebrews was never what it was among the ancient Greeks and Romans, or among the ancient Egyptians, where slaves at times were not counted as people. Slavery among the Hebrews was mild and patriarchal, and slaves were looked upon essentially as younger, not fully entitled members of the tribe, who of course had no voice in the tribal council but otherwise were like everyone else. It is no accident that in antiquity the Hebrews used one and the same word for an adolescent and a slave. And if a slave woman became the mother of an heir and the master's concubine, the wife's position in the house became ambiguous (v. 5).

Abraham, for his part, appears to have regarded all the complaints and reproaches from Sarah as not entirely fair: after all, Sarah herself, on her own initiative, had created the situation from which she now suffered. And he gave her the opportunity to resolve this situation at her own discretion (v. 6). The decision was quick, though hardly just: Hagar, together with her child, was in effect driven out of the house. By all appearances, a woman's jealousy outweighed all the considerations that had earlier led Sarah to approach Hagar with the proposal that she bear an heir for the master.

After everything that happened, it became clear to both Abraham and his wife that God's plans cannot be carried out by human efforts alone. At times, as it turned out, the best help one can give God in the fulfillment of His plan is patient waiting. Still, God does not abandon the fugitives (vv. 7-12): in the end, He is the one who has to solve the problems created by people who want to serve Him but do not know how. Everything is resolved well, and another people appears in the Middle East with its own future and its own history. God finds a place under the sun for everyone. And yet, while reading today's passage, a question arises involuntarily: is it worth creating needless problems both for God and for ourselves?

Other notes

For Gen 16:1-16