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Genesis' story of Hagar may share Ugaritic accounts of servant women receiving divine help with childbirth, giving a woman with little power a place in God's plans for a people.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
KTU 1.12 I:25
Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
Ancient Near East
El laughs in his heart, and […] in his liver: “Go out, you, O Tls, handmaid of Yarih, O Dmgy, handmaid of Athirat, take your chair, your […] your […], and go out among the oaks […] in the midst of the wilderness. […] dig with the forearms in the dust, with the bones of the hand […] writhe, give birth to the Devourers, […] and give birth to the […].” The gods proclaim their names. On them are horns like bulls, and humps like steers, and on them the face of Baal. Baal walks about and hunts, […] the edge of the wilderness. […] he reaches the Devourers, and he finds the […]. Baal desires them greatly, the son of Dagan […]. Baal goes after them on foot, and the god Haddu […].
Genesis 16:11
Hebrew Bible
7 The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring of water in the wilderness—the spring that is along the road to Shur. 8 He said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?” She replied, “I’m running away from my mistress, Sarai.” 9 Then the angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her authority. 10 I will greatly multiply your descendants,” the angel of the Lord added, “so that they will be too numerous to count.” 11 Then the angel of the Lord said to her, “You are now pregnant and are about to give birth to a son. You are to name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard your painful groans. 12 He will be a wild donkey of a man. He will be hostile to everyone, and everyone will be hostile to him. He will live away from his brothers.”
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Notes and References
“... The significance of the entire story is perhaps also made clearer when
it is recognized that the theme of the aged and childless patriarch who
miraculously begets a son is a direct echo of the hierogamic tradition of
the Ugaritic text KTU 1.23. J.R. Porter has shown how the story of Lot and
his daughters in Genesis 19.30-38 is related to the Canaanite tradition
(Porter 1978). The present context and its variant in the Ishmael cycle
(Genesis 16.1ff., 21.8ff.) is also derived from the same milieu (KTU 1.12:
Astour 1967: 86; on this material see also Wyatt 1996b: 219-91). The youth-
fulness of the child circumcised, so soon after birth, relates directly to his
birth as the renewal of the community, and at the same time, being removed
from the more overtly sexual context of marriage, makes the passage one
of spiritual transformation, from the profane and natural world into the
sacred, hieratic one of the confessing people of God. ...”
Wyatt, Nick
The Mythic Mind: Essays on Cosmology and Religion in Ugaritic and Old Testament Literature
(p. 64) Equinox, 2005
* 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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