Just one chapter ago, Abram believed YHWH and that was credited to him as righteousness. If Abram believed YHWH, why was he even listening to and obeying the voice of who? Saray? Why? Evidently they both were tired of waiting for the ‘child of promise’ in their old age, or at least Saray was and therefore resorted to plan B. That Abram so easily gave in is the bigger surprise; wasn’t he the one being addressed to by God from the very start? Shades of Adam and Eve, a deja vu in fact. Woman proposes, man willingly complies without as much as a protest! Did we hear from Adam, ‘stop Eve, God said . . .’ and when Eve went ahead anyway and offered him a bite of the forbidden fruit, did we hear ‘NO, you violated the command, I will not do as you did!’ What about Abram? ‘Yes dear, as you wish!’ instead of ‘NO Saray, YHWH promised a son from you!’ Unfortunately, Abram listened to and obeyed his wife.
Two records in Scripture of woman initiating disobedience and man going along, yet it is the men to whom instructions were given both times. Who is the more culpable, woman or man? Go figure. . . but if you read this post Revisited: The “I” in Image vs. the “I” in Idolatry, you know that ultimately for each individual, the voice he listens to is coming from within himself: his wants, the ‘I’ that wills for one self that ignores the ‘I’ that wills to obey God’s will. Bereshith 3 represented this “i” as the serpent within each person, except in that context it was within Eve who gave in to her “I” first, and Adam followed suit, giving in to his “I”. But back to Saray’s “I” and let’s not forget, Abraham’s “I”.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, Saray does not stop there; to add insult to injury, next Saray cannot stand the consequence of her own scheme so she schemes again to get rid of the prospective mother who will give birth to the child she (Saray) schemed to be the substitute for God’s promised son. The commentators attempt to explain this away by placing the blame on Hagar’s insolence and Abram’s passive behavior.
Inspite of this obvious lack of faith, trust, belief in God’s promise — God treats this ‘trinity’ with kid gloves for now, but there are consequences for the future generations.
Commentary is from Pentateuch and Haftorah’s, ed. Dr. J.H. Hertz; translation is Everett Fox The Five Books of Moses, with his own commentary “EF”; additional commentary by “RA”, Robert Altar, translator of The Five Books of Moses..—Admin1.]
Genesis/Bereshith 16
HAGAR AND ISHMAEL
1 Now Sarai, Avram’s wife, had not borne him (children). She had an Egyptian maid—her name was Hagar.
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no children. In the ancient Orient, childlessness was a calamity and a disgrace to a woman.
an Egyptian. Sarai probably acquired her during the stay in Egypt described in Chap. XII. Such female slaves remained the property of the wife solely.
[RA] slavegirl. Hebrew shifah. The tradition of English versions that render this as “maid” or “handmaiden” imposes a misleading sense of European gentility on the sociology of the story. The point is that Hagar belongs to Sarai as property, and the ensuing complications of their relationship build on that fundamental fact. Later on, Hagar will also be referred to as ‘amah. The two terms designate precisely the same social status. The only evident difference is that of ‘amah, the more international of the two terms, is often used in administrative lists whereas shifhah occurs in contexts that are more narrative and popular in character.
2 Sarai said to Avram: Now here, YHWH has obstructed me from bearing; pray come in to my maid, perhaps I may be built-up-with-sons through her! Avram hearkened to Sarai’s voice:
the LORD hath restrained me. In Scripture the hand of God is traced in every occurrence of life. Even what we should call ‘natural phenomena’ are ascribed to Divine agency.
unto my handmaid. It was the legalized custom in Babylon, the homeland of Abram and Sarai, that if a man’s wife was childless, he was allowed to take a concubine, but he was not to place her upon an equal footing with his first wife.
be builded up through her. By the adoption of Hagar’s children as her own. The literal translation of the phrase is, ‘he builded by her.’ The family was pictured by the Hebrews under the image of a house; and the Rabbis speak of the wife as the husband’s ‘house’.
[EF] built-up-with-sons: Heb. ibbane, a play on bano (build) and ben (son).
[RA] And Sarai said. Sarai-Sarah’s first reported speech, like that of Rachel later on in the cycle, is a complaint about her childlessness. The institution of surrogate maternity to which she resorts is by no means her invention, being well attested in ancient near Eastern legal documents. Living with the human consequences of the institution could be quite another matter, as the writer shrewdly understands: Sarai’s first two-sided dialogue with her husband (verses 5-6) vividly represents the first domestic squabble—her bitterness and her resentment against the husband who, after all, has only complied with her request; his willingness to buy conjugal peace at almost any price.
be built up through her. The Hebrew ‘ibaneh pus on ben, “son,” and so also means, “I will be sonned through her.”
3 Sarai, Avram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian-woman, her maid, at the end of ten years of Avram’s being settled in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Avram as a wife for him.[EF] wife: Or “concubine.”
[RA] as a wife. Mosst English versions, following the logic of the context, render this as “concubine.” The word used, however, is not pilegesh but ‘ishah, the same term that identifies Sarai at the beginning of the verse. The terminological equation of the two women is surely intended, and sets up an ironic backdrop for Sarai’s abuse of Hagar.
4 He came in to Hagar, and she became pregnant. But when she saw that she was pregnant, her mistress became of light-worth in her eyes.her mistress was despised in her eyes. Hagar, who was still a slave, behaved in a disrespectful and ungrateful manner towards her mistress.
[EF] became of light-worth in her eyes: A Hebrew idiom. JPS: “was lowered in her esteem.”
[RA] in her eyes. It is best to leave the Hebrew idiom literally in place in English because Hagar’s sight will again be at issue in her naming of the divinity after the epiphany in the wilderness.
5 Sarai said to Avram: “The wrong done me is upon you! I myself gave my maid into your bosom, but now that she sees that she is pregnant, I have become of light-worth in her eyes. May YHWH see-justice-done between me and you!my wrong be upon thee. i.e. thine is the responsibility for the wrong done to me by Hagar. Sarai’s reproach is that he did not check Hagar’s haughtiness towards her.
[RA] your embrace. Literally, “your lap,” often a euphemism for the genital area. The emphasis is pointedly sexual.
6 Avram said to Sarai: Here, your maid is in your hand, deal with her however seems good in your eyes. Sarai afflicted her, so taht she had to flee from her.in thy hand. In thy power. From his knowledge of Sarai, he thought she would aim merely to bring Hagar back to proper behavior.
harshly. Sarai probably imposed heavy tasks upon her. ‘Sarah our Mother acted sinfully in thus ill-treating Hagar, and also Abram in permitting ill-treating Hagar, and also Abram in permitting it; therefore, God heard her affliction and gave her a son who became the ancestor of a ferocious race that was destined to deal harshly with the descendants of Abram and Sarai’ (Nachmanides). Some modern commentators, however, admit that ‘few women would have borne the insolence of Hagar’.
[EF] afflicted: Or “abused,” “maltreated.”
7 But YHWH’s messenger found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur.
the angel of the LORD found her. ‘The narrative, like XXI,16-19, illustrates beautifully the Divine regard for the forlorn and desolate soul’ (Driver). This is the first time that an ‘angel’ is mentioned in the Bible. The Hebrew word, like the English ‘angel’, originally means ‘messenger’, and is applied to any agent or missioner of God. The phrase ‘angel of the Lord’, however, is sometimes used to denote God Himself.
Shur. lit. ‘the wall’, or fortification which protected Egypt on the East from the incursion of raiding Bedouins. Hagar, in her flight through the wilderness, wanders in the direction of her native land.
[EF] YHWH’s messenger: Traditionally “angel,” but the English word stems from the Greek angelos, which also means “messenger.” In Genesis God’s messengers seem to be quite human in appearance, and are sometimes taken for God himself (see 18:2).
[RA] the LORD’s messenger. This is the first occurrence of an “angel” (Hebrew, mal’akh, Greek, angelos) in Genesis, though “the sons of God,” the members of the divine entourage, are mentioned in chapter 6. “Messenger,” or one who carries out a designated task, is the primary meaning of the Hebrew term, and there are abundant biblical instances of ma’akhim who are strictly human emissaries. One assumes that the divine messenger in these stories is supposed to look just like a human being, and all postbiblical associations with wings, halos, and glorious raiment must be firmly excluded. One should note that the divine speaker here begins as an angel but ends up (verse 13) being referred to as though he were God Himself. Gerhard von Rad and others have proposed that the angel as intermediary was superimposed on the earliest biblical tradition in order to mitigate what may have seemed an excessively anthropomorphic representation of the deity. But it is anyone’s guess how the Hebrew imagination conceived agents of the LORD three thousand years ago, and it is certainly possible that the original traditions had a blurry notion of differentiation between God’s own interventions in human life and those of His emissaries. Richard Elliott Friedman has actually proposed that the angels are entities split off, or emanated, from God, and that no clear-cut distinction between God and angel is intended.
in the wilderness. . . . on the way to Shur. Hagar is in the Negeb, headed south, evidently back toward her native Egypt. Shur means “wall” in Hebrew, and scholars have linked the name with the line of fortifications the Egyptians built on their northern border. But the same word could also be construed as a verb that occurs in poetic texts, “to see’ (or perhaps, more loftily, “to espy”), and may relate to the thematics of seeing in Hagar’s story.
8. He said: Hagar, Sarai’s maid, whence do you come, whither are you going? She said: I am fleeing from Sarai my mistress.Hagar, Sarai’s handmaid. Reminding Hagar of the duty she owed her mistress.
whence camest thou? A leading question, not seeking for information, but giving Hagar an opportunity of unburdening her heart.
9 YHWH’s messenger said to her: Return to your mistress and let yourself be afflicted under her hand! 10 And YHWH’s messenger said to her: I will make your seed many, yes, many, it will be too many to count![EF] too many to count: Apparently fulfilling God’s blessing and promise to Avram in 15:5. Until 17:16, nothing indicates taht Yishmael is not Avram’s long-awaited heir.
11 And YHWH’s messenger said to her: Here, you are pregnant, you will bear a son: call his name: Yishmael!/God Hearkens, for God has hearkened to your being afflicted.affliction. The use of this word clearly indicates the Divine disapproval of Sarah’s treatment of Hagar. In ancient Israel, the servant is quite other than the ‘helot’ in Greece, or the ‘slave’ in Rome. Underlying the Hagar narrative is the assumption that fair and friendly treatment should be shown even to an alien bondwoman; the position of Eliezer in Abraham’s household.
[EF] Yishmael: Trad. English “Ishmael.”
[RA] Ishmael. The name means “God has heard,” as the messenger proceeds to explain. The previous occurrence of hearing in the story is Abram’s “heeding” (shama’, the same story is Abram’s “heeding’ (shama’, the same verb) Sarai’s voice. God’s hearing is then complemented by His and Hagar’s seeing (verse 13).
your suffering. The noun derives from the same root as the verb of abuse (or, harassment, harsh handling, humiliation) used for Sarai’s mistreatment of Hagar.
12 He shall be a wild-ass of a man, his hand against all, hand of all against him, yet in the presence of all his brothers shall he dwell.
a wild ass of a man. A vivid description of ‘the sons of the desert, owning no authority save that of their own chief, reckless of life, treacherous towards strangers, ever ready for war or pillage’ (Driver).
[RA] his hand against all. Although this may be a somewhat ambiguous blessing, it does celebrate the untamed power—also intimated in the image of the wild ass or onager—of the future Ishmaelites to thrive under the bellicose conditions of their nomadic existence.
in despite of. The Hebrew idiom suggests defiance, as E.A. Speiser has persuasively shown.
13 Now she called the name of YHWH, the one who was speaking to her: You God of Seeing! For she said: Have I actually gone on seeing here after his seeing me?a God of seeing. i.e. a God who deigns to take notice of the plight of His creatures, and sends them succour in the hour of their need.
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even here. In the desert, a ‘God-forsaken place’!
[EF] Have I actually gone on seeing . . .: Heb. obscure. Hagar possibly is expressing surprise, that she survived her encounter with God.
[RA] El-Roi. The most evident meaning of the Hebrew name would be “God Who sees me.” Hagar’s words in explanation of the name are rather cryptic in the Hebrew. The translation reflects a scholarly consensus that what is at issue is a general Israelite terror that no one can survive having seen God. Hagar, then, would be expressing grateful relief that she has survived her epiphany. Though this might well be a somewhat garbled etiological tale to account for the place-name Beer-Lahai-Roi (understood by the writer to mean “Well of the living One Who Sees Me”), it is made to serve the larger ends of Hagar’s story: the outcast slavegirl is vouchsafed a revelation which she survives, and is assured that, as Abram’s wife, she will be progenitrix of a great people.
14 Therefore the well was called: Well of the Living-One Who-Sees-Me. Here, it is between Kadesh and Bered. 15 Hagar bore Avram a son, and Avram called the name of the son whom Hagar bore: Yishmael.and Abram called. On Hagar’s return to her mistress, Abram learned all that had occurred; and he accordingly gave the child the name ordained for him.
16 Avram was eighty years and six years old when Hagar bore Yishmael to Avram.
Additional Commentary by EF: The Firstborn Son (16): In the ace of Sarai’s inability to bear children, Avram is given the legitimate option of producing an heir through her maid, Hagar. Somewhat embarrassing to later interpreters, this practice was nevertheless common in the ancient Near East. Hagar abuses her temporarily exalted position (as her son Yishmael apparently does in a parallel story, in Chap. 21), but is saved by God’s intervention. The motif of “affliction”is continued from Chap. 15 (here, in vv. 6,9,and 11); also mentioned three times is God’s “hearkening” (hence the name Yishmael/God Hearkens). Buber understood this vocabulary to allude to the Exodus story, which in its early chapters uses the same terms.
Although Yishmael is not ultimately the chosen heir, he is nonetheless protected by God (see 21:20) and is eventually made into “a great nation” (17:20), as befits a child of Avram.