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Baruch mentions Hagar or her descendants, an unusual reference after she disappears from the Hebrew Bible, suggesting renewed interest in later tradition. This has been linked to the Hagrites in 1 Chronicles, defeated during Israel’s eastern expansion.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
1 Chronicles 5:10
Hebrew Bible
8 and Bela son of Azaz, son of Shema, son of Joel. They lived in Aroer as far as Nebo and Baal Meon. 9 In the east they settled as far as the entrance to the wilderness that stretches to the Euphrates River, for their cattle had increased in numbers in the land of Gilead. 10 During the time of Saul they attacked the Hagrites and defeated them. They took over their territory in the entire eastern region of Gilead. 11 The descendants of Gad lived near them in the land of Bashan, as far as Salecah. 12 They included Joel the leader, Shapham the second-in-command, Janai, and Shaphat in Bashan.
Date: 400–301 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Baruch 3:23
Deuterocanon
21 nor understood its paths. Their children haven’t embraced it. They are far off from their way. 22 It has not been heard of in Canaan, neither has it been seen in Teman. 23 The sons also of Hagar who seek understanding, which are in the land, the merchants of Merran and Teman, and the authors of fables, and the searchers out of understanding—none of these have known the way of wisdom or remembered her paths. 24 O Israel, how great is the house of God! How large is the place of his possession! 25 It is great and has no end. It is high and unmeasurable.
Date: 200–50 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... In the Bible, Hagar and Ishmael live first in the wilderness of Paran, where he develops as a martial artist, specializing in the bow. Eventually Hagar and Ishmael go home to Egypt. Hagar finds a wife for Ishmael. Were they reunited with Hagar’s family? To what city did they go? Into what family or community did Ishmael marry? Hagar’s journey to Egypt, where she procures a wife for Ishmael (as does Hajar in the hadith), creates a final inverse parallel with the Israelite sojourn in Egypt: Hagar the Egyptian is abused by Sarah the proto-Israelite; Israel is abused by Egypt. Hagar escapes into the wilderness; Israel escapes into the wilderness. Hagar heads toward Egypt; Israel heads away from Egypt. Hagar’s name is never called again in the Hebrew Scriptures, though she is named in Baruch 3:23. Her name may live on in the Hagrites of the First Testament; she is reinterpreted in the Second Testament (see Galatians 4:22–25), and midrashed and exegeted in the sacred literatures of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam ..."
Wilda C. Gafney, Womanist Midrash: A Reintroduction to the Women of the Torah and the Throne (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2017), 44.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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