Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

HAGAR

(Heb. hāgār)

An Egyptian woman, servant to the matriarch Sarai. The story of Hagar, representing two strands of tradition in Gen. 16, 21, , is one of status competition, surrogate motherhood, ethnic conflict, class struggle, abuse, exile, and triumph.

The barren Sarai gives Hagar to Abram “as a wife” (Gen. 16:3), making any would-be offspring a legal heir according to contemporary Mesopotamian law. Sarai comes to rue the day she manipulated such a union. Hagar, upon conceiving, scorns Sarai (Gen. 16:4), driving Sarai to abuse her in return. Hagar flees into the desert wilderness, pregnant and on foot, headed 240 km. (150 mi.) south to Shur. The angel of the Lord sends her back to Sarai with promises similar to those made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Her son, to be named Ishmael, would produce offspring too numerous to count (Gen. 16:10) — 12 tribes which would become a great nation (17:20).

Some years later (Gen. 21:8-21), at the weaning of Isaac, Sarah notices Ishmael laughing or playing with him. The incident, though positive, is interpreted by Sarah as bearing threat to Isaac’s inheritance. She asks Abraham to rid her family of Hagar and Ishmael once and for all. Hagar, finding herself once again in the wilderness without sustenance, leaves Ishmael to die (here her son’s age doesn’t quite fit the context). Once again, God intervenes, providing food and water and reiterating the earlier promises to Hagar. She later finds an Egyptian wife for her near-grown son.

The Apostle Paul later allegorizes the story of Sarah and Hagar (Gal. 4:21-31) to portray Sarah’s literal descendants as enslaved (like Hagar) to the old covenant, while Sarah’s descendants by faith (and promise) become the essence of the new covenant of freedom. Ironically, to make his analogy work, Paul, like so many commentators before and since, overlooks the ambiguous faithfulness of both Sarah and Hagar.

Bibliography. A. O. Bellis, Helpmates, Harlots, Heroes (Louisville, 1994); P. E. Tarlow and E. C. Want, “Bad Guys, Textual Errors and Wordplays in Genesis 21:9-10,” Journal of Reform Judaism 37/4 (1990): 21-29; P. Trible, “Hagar: The Desolation of Rejection,” in Texts of Terror. OBT 13 (Philadelphia, 1984), 9-35; C. Westermann, Genesis 12-36 (Minneapolis, 1985).

James E. Brenneman

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

HAGAR

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)