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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 16:7 and Exodus 15:22

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Genesis 16 describes Hagar on the way to Shur, echoing Israel’s journey into the wilderness of Shur in Exodus. Hagar is placed in the role of Israel, fleeing oppression and finding God in the wilderness. Sarai is ironically placed in the role of Pharaoh.

Passages

Genesis 16:7

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

Exodus 15:22

Hebrew Bible
22 Then Moses led Israel to journey away from the Red Sea. They went out to the wilderness of Shur, walked for three days into the wilderness, and found no water. 23 Then they came to Marah, but they were not able to drink the waters of Marah, because they were bitter. (That is why its name was Marah.) 24 So the people murmured against Moses, saying, “What can we drink?” 25 He cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree. When Moses threw it into the water, the water became safe to drink. There the Lord made for them a binding ordinance, and there he tested them. 26 He said, “If you will diligently obey the Lord your God, and do what is right in his sight, and pay attention to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, then all the diseases that I brought on the Egyptians I will not bring on you, for I, the Lord, am your healer.”
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Exodus

References

"... in a sudden and shocking plot twist, we hear that the messenger of YHWH finds Hagar – the immigrant, pregnant, fugitive slave – ‘by a spring of water in the wilderness … on the way to Shur’ (Genesis 16:7). Scholars such as Dozeman draw parallels between Hagar’s and Moses’ divine encounters in the wilderness and between Hagar’s wilderness journey and the Israelites’ journey through the wilderness. Shur was one of the southern routes that led to Egypt. Therefore, it is possible to assume that Hagar is making her way back home to Egypt. The messenger calls her by her name, and ‘invites her to speak’ (Genesis 16:8). I would point to three aspects of Hagar’s encounter with the messenger of YHWH. Firstly, this is the first time in Scripture that the messenger of YHWH appears to a person. Thus, the fact that YHWH’s messenger first appears to an Egyptian, runaway slave girl, makes this encounter even more striking because it would seem to signify that an encounter with YHWH is ‘not based on nationality, ethnicity, or social status’. Secondly, it is instructive to note that YHWH’s messenger is the subject of the verb מצא [find], indicating that ‘Hagar was not running away in order to find God, but [the messenger] of Yahweh found her running’. Indeed, YHWH is always attentive to the stranger, the foreigner, the refugee, the marginalised, the abandoned, and the oppressed ... Thirdly, the divine messenger’s treatment of Hagar contrasts sharply with Sarah and Abraham’s treatment of Hagar. By calling Hagar by her name and inviting her to speak, YHWH’s messenger does what Abraham and Sarah neglected to do: affirm Hagar’s dignity, uphold her personhood, establish a relationship with her, and allow her to speak ..."
A. Rebecca Basdeo Hill and Lee R. Martin, “Seeing and Hearing Hagar: An Affective Reading of Genesis 16,” IDS 58.1 (2024): 1–7.

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Genesis 16:7 and Exodus 15:22

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