Chapter Sixteen

Sarah, being barren, gives her maid Hagar to Abram

Genesis 16:1. Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. She had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar. A necessary introductory remark preparing for what follows. Ten whole years (Gen 16:3) had passed since Abram and Sarai received the divine promise of numerous offspring, and yet Sarai had not borne a single son.

Genesis 16:2. And Sarai said to Abram: Behold, the Lord has closed my womb so that I cannot bear; go in to my maid: Humbly considering herself the main cause of the failure of the divine promise regarding offspring and wishing to help Abram in obtaining it, Sarai, with great magnanimity, renounces her rights as a wife and willingly offers him her own maid Hagar in marriage, whom they had taken with them from Egypt, probably among the other gifts with which the Egyptians had provided them (Gen 12:16). The very name of this maid, “Hagar,” means flight and was given to her either by prophetic foresight or, more likely, as a retrospective reminder of her twofold flight from her mistress’s house (Gen 16:6). perhaps I shall obtain children by her. In the Hebrew text it is said differently: “so that I may build up a house (banah) for myself through her, that I may be strengthened by her”; in the Slavonic (following the LXX): “so that I may have children by her.” Through this, Sarai’s action itself becomes much clearer: evidently, she is here relying on the customary right of that era, by virtue of which children born to a husband by a maid were considered his legitimate children and, consequently, belonged equally to both spouses—that is, both to the husband and to the wife (Gen 30:3). Abram listened to the words of Sarai. Although in Abram’s action there was a violation of the purity of the marriage bond (Gen 2:24), an excuse for him is, first, that he did this not from his own passion, but from obedience to his wife, and second, that in performing this deed he pursued not personal, base interests, but higher, theocratic purposes (Mal 2:15).

Genesis 16:3. And Sarai, Abram’s wife, took her maid Hagar the Egyptian, at the end of ten years of Abram’s dwelling in the land of Canaan, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife. The title of wife is applied here to Hagar not in the strict and proper sense, but in the sense of a temporary concubine, as she is more precisely called elsewhere (Gen 25:6); yet at the same time she was a legal concubine, taken with the consent, approval, and even at the request of the wife, so that in this case she was for Abram a wife of the second rank.

Hagar’s arrogance and Sarai’s complaint about her

Genesis 16:4. He went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she began to despise her mistress. Throughout the ancient East, and especially among the Hebrews, childbearing was considered a special sign of divine blessing and family honor (Gen 24:60; Exod 23:26; Deut 7:14); whereas barrenness, on the contrary, was viewed as a misfortune and a disgrace (Gen 30:1; Luke 1:48 and others). It is no wonder that the young maid Hagar, imbued with such views, might become carried away before her deprived mistress.

Genesis 16:5. And Sarai said to Abram: The wrong is on you; I put my maid into your bosom, and when she saw that she had conceived, she began to despise me; “Sarai is punished for her impatience; she herself offered her maid to her husband so that the promise might be fulfilled sooner, and now feels that a new mistress is rising up in the house. But, not having foreseen the consequences of her action, she now blames Abram for everything” (Vlastov). let the Lord judge between me and you. “Words of a grieving soul!” says John Chrysostom, “and if the patriarch had not been so wise and had not held Sarai in great respect, he would have grown angry and been offended by such harsh words. But this worthy man forgave her everything, knowing the weakness of her nature.” Nevertheless, it is easy to understand the painful state of Sarai’s soul, in which both the jealousy of a deprived wife and the dignity of an insulted mistress spoke at once.

Hagar’s flight to the wilderness and the angel of Jehovah’s appearance to her there

Genesis 16:6. Abram said to Sarai: Your maid is in your hands; do with her as you please. By these words Abram wisely quells the beginning domestic quarrel between mistress and maid, pointing out the true role of the former and her legitimate rights with respect to the latter. And Sarai mistreated her, But Sarai could not find enough magnanimity within herself and showed somewhat partial harshness toward Hagar. Here is another example of how Scripture does not conceal and does not minimize even the failings of the righteous. and she fled from her. The proud maid was unwilling to endure such humiliation and preferred to flee to the wilderness of Shur (Gen 16:7), which lay on the road between Egypt and Assyria (Gen 25:18; 1 Sam 15:7) in the northwestern corner of the Arabian peninsula, now known as “Djifar.” It was the road from Palestine to the land of the pharaohs that ran through it, and it was most natural for Hagar to head there, to her native country.

Genesis 16:7. And the angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the road to Shur. In the Hebrew original stands “Malak-Jehovah,” analogous to another phrase “Malak-Elohim” (Gen 21:17). Regarding this well-known agent of Old Testament revelations, there exists an enormous body of literature, all of which is divided into two opposite categories: in one the view is maintained that “Malak-Jehovah” was an ordinary created being, though the highest in rank among the angels; in the writings of the other category, the truth is asserted that “Malak-Jehovah” was a manifestation of God Himself—namely, the Logos or the Son of God. The representatives of the first view (Augustine, Origen, Jerome, Hoffman, Baumgarten, Tolluck, Delitzsch, Kurtz) base themselves on the following grounds: 1) the term “malak” or “angel” ordinarily denotes a class of spiritually created beings (Gen 19:1; Job 4:18; Ps 90 and others); 2) in the New Testament ἄγγελος Κυρίου (angel of the Lord) (Matt 1:20; Luke 2:9) constantly refers to a created angel; 3) the philological origin of the term “malak” itself indicates its dependent and subordinate condition (2 Sam 24:16; Zech 1:12); and 4) finally, a revelation of God in such a human form could not have been understood before the coming of the Savior into the world. None of these arguments has decisive force. The arguments of the representatives of the other camp (Hengstenberg, Keil, Lange, Hovenik, Nitsch, Ebrard, Ehlert, Baumgarten, Wordsworth, and among Russians: A. Glagolev, A. Lebedev, Yastrebov and others) reduce to the following main theses: 1) “Malak-Jehovah” clearly identifies Himself with Jehovah (Gen 16:10) and with Elohim (Gen 22:12); 2) those to whom He appears ordinarily take Him for God Himself (Gen 16:13; Exod 3:6; Judg 6:15); 3) biblical authors constantly speak of Him as God, calling Him Jehovah (Gen 16:13; Exod 3:2 and others); 4) the doctrine of the plurality of persons in the Godhead, upon which this view is based, stands in agreement with both earlier hints of it (Gen 1:26) and later revelations; 5) the organic unity of the two covenants requires that one and the same Person be the central point of both—namely, the Logos, the Son of God—and does not permit the Old Testament to have as that person a created being—“Malak-Jehovah.” A comparison of the arguments of both sides clearly testifies to the preponderance of the latter—that is, to understanding the “Angel-Jehovah” as one form of theophany, namely, the Old Testament form of personal revelation of the Son of God.

Genesis 16:8. And the angel of the Lord said [to her]: Hagar, maid of Sarai! These very words of address, better than any rebuke, should have brought the erring maid to her senses.

Genesis 16:9. The angel of the Lord said to her: Return to your mistress and submit to her. “The angel condemns neither Hagar nor Sarai,” says Metropolitan Philaret, “he merely restores their proper relationship to each other. From this one can conclude that what happened between Sarai and Hagar was more of a misunderstanding than a malicious quarrel; probably Hagar thought it improper to remain a maid now that she had conceived by Abram; Sarai, on the other hand, feared that her maid would become her mistress” (Vlastov).

The Lord’s prophecy concerning Hagar’s offspring

Genesis 16:10. And the angel of the Lord said to her: I will greatly multiply your offspring, so that they cannot be numbered for multitude. It is very important to note here that the angel of the Lord speaks in His own person in a way that ordinarily only God Himself speaks. This is one of the chief grounds for recognizing the divine dignity of the angel of the Lord. Since Hagar became the wife of Abram, in some measure she also became an heir of those promises regarding numerous offspring that were given to the progenitor of the Hebrews. This prophecy about Hagar’s offspring through her son Ishmael was brilliantly vindicated in history, namely, in the fate of those twelve nomadic tribes which, under the general name of Ishmaelites and also Hagerites or Saracens, occupied much of the Arabian desert (Gen 25:12-16) and repeatedly emigrated from there to Africa, Spain, Persia, and even India.

Genesis 16:11. And the angel of the Lord said to her: Behold, you are pregnant and shall bear a son; you shall call his name Ishmael, for the Lord has heard your affliction; The second half of this phrase serves, properly speaking, as an explanation of the name Ishmael, which in literal translation means: “God hears.”

Genesis 16:12. he shall be a wild donkey of a man; The wild donkey, or onager, which is repeatedly and artistically depicted in the Bible (Job 39:5-8; Isa 32:14), is, by general opinion, a strikingly vivid and true type of the Bedouin—that wild son of the desert. his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him; With equal vividness and force is depicted the future fate of these nomads, whose entire restless existence alternates between bold raids and harsh retaliation for them. he shall dwell in the presence of all his brothers. The descendants of the two brothers—Ishmael and Isaac—will not intermarry with each other but will live separately and independently, remaining always in close, though not always friendly, neighborhood with one another.

Genesis 16:13. And Hagar called the name of the Lord Who spoke to her: A remark from the historian himself, of great importance in establishing the identity of the Angel-Jehovah. You are the God who sees me. These words of Hagar have exactly the same significance for us. Moreover, in them is expressed Hagar’s confession of faith in divine Providence and God’s omniscience (Ps 138:11; Job 34:21-22; Amos 9:2-3). This is expressed still more clearly in the Slavonic translation: “You are the God Who looked upon me,” that is, Who has shown forth His providential power upon me.

Genesis 16:14. Therefore the well was called: The proper name of the well in the Slavonic text is replaced by a translation explaining its meaning: “where I was seen before me”; from this it is clear that Hagar, following the common Eastern custom, to perpetuate the memory of the theophany that happened to her at the well, also renamed the well itself in honor of it. Genesis 16:14. It is between Kadesh and Bered. Hagar’s well, mentioned twice more in the Bible (Gen 24:62), is, according to the opinion of a learned Palestinian geographer (Reland, cited by Ritter), most likely to be found in the spring of Ain-Kadesh, in a valley lying to the south of Beersheba, along which caravans travel from Syria to Sinai and which the Arabs call “Milkhi” or “Muweilh,” the same name they use for Hagar, and where they point out a cave—“the bed of Hagar.”

Genesis 16:15. And Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. Instructed by the revelation that had come to her, Hagar returned to Abram’s house, was reconciled with Sarai, and soon became a mother, bearing a son, whom Abram, in accordance with the command given in the revelation, named Ishmael. By this the reality of the vision that came to Hagar is also confirmed.

Genesis 16:16. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram. A remark from the historian, drawn, it is probable, from a tradition that carefully preserved all details from the life of this most famous patriarch in the entire East (Gen 17:24-25). * * * Notes