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Genesis

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Hagar and the Birth of Ishmael

Chapter 16

1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had not given birth to any children, but she had an Egyptian servant named Hagar. 2 So Sarai said to Abram, “Since the Lord has prevented me from having children, please sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have a family by her.”⁠ Abram did what Sarai told him.⁠ 3 So after Abram had lived in Canaan for ten years, Sarai, Abram’s wife, gave Hagar, her Egyptian servant, to her husband⁠ to be his wife.⁠ 4 He slept with Hagar, and she became pregnant. Once Hagar realized she was pregnant, she despised Sarai. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “You have brought this wrong on me! I gave my servant into your embrace, but when she realized that she was pregnant, she despised me. May the Lord judge between you and me!” 6 Abram said to Sarai, “Since your servant is under your authority, do to her what is right in your eyes22.”⁠ Then Sarai treated Hagar harshly, so she ran away from Sarai.⁠ 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.” 13 So Hagar named the Lord who spoke to her, “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “Here I have seen one who sees me!”⁠ 14 That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi. (It is located between Kadesh and Bered.) 15 So Hagar gave birth to Abram’s son, whom Abram named Ishmael.⁠ 16 (Now Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael.)

Texts in conversation

Compare Genesis 15:5 and Genesis 16:10

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Genesis links Abram’s promise of countless descendants with a matching promise to Hagar, the only woman to receive one. Her suffering under Sarai mirrors Israel’s oppression in Egypt, placing Hagar in Israel’s role and Sarai in the role of Pharaoh.

Passages

Genesis 15:5

Hebrew Bible
3 Abram added, “Since you have not given me a descendant, then look, one born in my house will be my heir!” 4 But look, the Lord’s message came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but instead a son who comes from your own body will be your heir.” 5 The Lord took him outside and said, “Gaze into the sky and count the stars—if you are able to count them!” Then he said to him, “So will your descendants be.” 6 Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord credited it as righteousness to him.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis

Genesis 16:10

Hebrew Bible
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.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis

References

"... Why would the messenger of YHWH encounter Hagar on her flight from intolerable abuse, speak to her, validate her dignity, only to tell her to return to the injustices of her enslavement? To understand the messenger’s seemingly cruel instructions, it is necessary for us to hear the messenger’s directive in the context of the rest of the message. Firstly, the messenger assures Hagar she will have a hopeful future, by promising to greatly multiply her descendants that they will be too numerous to count (Genesis 16:10). This divine assurance to Hagar echoes the promise YHWH made with Abraham, concerning his descendants (compare Genesis 12:2, 7; 13:15, 16; 15:5). Notably, Hagar is the only woman to receive the divine promise of innumerable descendants. Furthermore, what makes this promise so salient, is that it is given to a ‘non-Hebrew’ slave woman. Secondly, the messenger reveals that Hagar is pregnant with a son (Genesis 16:11). Thirdly, the messenger instructs Hagar to name her son יִשְׁמָעֵאל (Ishmael), ‘because YHWH has heard your affliction’ (Genesis 16:11). Under Abraham and Sarah, we never hear Hagar’s woeful laments. Such silence signals the sustained and torturous abuse Hagar endured at the hands of Sarah and Abraham. Nevertheless, the meaning of ‘Ishmael’ indicates Hagar did cry out and, while there is nothing in the text that indicates Hagar’s cries are directed to God, God hears her cries, ‘is affected by’ her cries ..."
A. Rebecca Basdeo Hill and Lee R. Martin, “Seeing and Hearing Hagar: An Affective Reading of Genesis 16,” IDS 58.1 (2024): 1–7.
"... The promise to grant Hagar offspring too numerous to count in verse 9 is an obvious allusion to the promise of progeny that is now the principal concern in the story of Abram. The point is unmistakable: Hagar does have a positive role in the providential drama centered on Abram, and her offspring will indeed fall within the bounds of the promise to the Patriarch, Sarai's wishes notwithstanding. But Hagar's conceiving plays an even more crucial part within the larger symbolic structure of the Book of Genesis ..."
Jon D. Levenson, The Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son: The Transformation of Child Sacrifice in Judaism and Christianity (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1993), 93.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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