Once upon a time, Sarai, the wife of Abram, found herself barren and unable to bear children. She had a handmaid, an Egyptian woman named Hagar. With despair heavy in her heart, Sarai approached Abram and said, “Behold, Jehovah has restrained me from bearing children. I implore you, lie with my handmaid Hagar. Perhaps through her, we can have a child.” Hearing his wife’s plea, Abram agreed to Sarai’s request.
Thus, after ten years of Abram living in the land of Canaan, Sarai took Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. Abram went in unto Hagar, and she conceived. When Hagar saw that she was with child, she began to look down on her mistress Sarai.
Angered by Hagar’s new attitude, Sarai confronted Abram, “The wrongdoing is yours. I gave my handmaid into your embrace, and she sees that she has conceived, I am now dishonored in her eyes. May Jehovah judge between you and me.” Abram, caught in the middle, told his wife, “Your handmaid is in your power; treat her as you see fit.” Following Abram’s words, Sarai dealt harshly with Hagar, which led the Egyptian woman to run away from her face.
In her flight, the angel of Jehovah found Hagar by a water fountain in the wilderness, on the way to Shur. The angel asked her, “Hagar, Sarai’s handmaid, where are you coming from and where are you going?” Hagar replied, “I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.” Then the angel of Jehovah commanded Hagar to return and submit herself to Sarai.
The angel of Jehovah comforted Hagar with a promise: “I will greatly multiply your offspring so that they cannot be counted for multitude.” Furthermore, the angel of Jehovah revealed to her that she was carrying a son and instructed her to name him Ishmael, meaning, “God has heard your affliction.”
Ishmael, the angel said, would live freely, like a wild donkey, with his hand against everyone and everyone’s hand against him. He would live with his kinsmen, in constant contention yet always nearby. Awed by the divine encounter, Hagar praised Jehovah, calling him the God who sees, for she said, “Have I not seen the One who sees me?” She named that place, Beer-lahai-roi, the well of the Living One who sees me, which is situated between Kadesh and Bered.
True to the angel’s prophecy, Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram named him Ishmael. The birth of Ishmael happened when Abram was eighty-six years old, marking the fulfillment of God’s promise despite the complicated circumstances.
