Hagar #30

Hagar is an Egyptian woman who serves in the household of Abraham and Sarah and becomes the mother of Ishmael. Her story, told in Genesis 16 and 21, is unusual among the patriarchal narratives in that she is a foreign servant with little power, yet God speaks to her directly and promises her descendants.

Biblical Significance

When Sarah remains childless, she gives Hagar to Abraham so that “I may obtain children by her,” following a custom recorded elsewhere in the ancient Near East. Hagar conceives, and relations between the two women quickly sour. Sarah treats her harshly, and Hagar runs into the wilderness (Genesis 16:1-6). There the angel of the LORD finds her by a spring, tells her to return, and promises that her offspring will be too many to count. She is told to name her son Ishmael, meaning “God hears,” “because the LORD hath heard thy affliction” (Genesis 16:7-12). Hagar then gives God a name of her own, “Thou God seest me,” saying, “Have I also here looked after him that seeth me?” (Genesis 16:13-14). Readers often note that she is one of very few people in Genesis said to give God a name.

Years after Isaac is born, Sarah sees Ishmael mocking or playing, and insists that Hagar and her son be sent away. Abraham is distressed, but God tells him to listen to Sarah and promises that Ishmael will also become a nation (Genesis 21:8-13). Hagar wanders in the wilderness of Beersheba, and when the water is gone she places the boy under a bush and weeps at a distance. God hears the boy’s voice, and the angel says, “What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not,” then opens her eyes to a well (Genesis 21:14-19). God is with Ishmael as he grows up in the wilderness of Paran, and Hagar finds him an Egyptian wife (Genesis 21:20-21).

Legacy

Ishmael’s descendants are listed in Genesis 25, which begins by identifying him as the son of “Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s handmaid” (Genesis 25:12). In Galatians, Paul uses the two women as an allegory, associating Hagar with the covenant from Mount Sinai and with present Jerusalem, while Sarah stands for the covenant of promise (Galatians 4:21-31). That reading has been understood in many ways, and later interpreters have sometimes read Hagar’s story more sympathetically than Paul’s allegory does.

In Islamic tradition, Hajar is honored as the mother of Ishmael and is linked to Mecca and the well of Zamzam, though those traditions come from outside the biblical text. In the Bible, Hagar is remembered mainly as one whom God sees and hears, and as a reminder that his care extends to the overlooked and mistreated.