Walk in the Bible - Genesis 16

Walk in the Bible - Genesis 16

This chapter starts off right away with mentioning that Sari still hasn't had any children yet, so she devises a plan to have Abram have a child, through her maid, Hagar.  Hagar is actually the pharaoh's daughter! Remember, he was told the leave Egypt when the Pharaoh took Sari as a wife and received plagues in his household for his trouble! Also, Rabbeinu Bahya reminds us that Hagar really belongs to Sari, she's, according to the customs of the day, property Sari brings with her at the marriage. Abram has limits on what he can do with her, in fact, he can't even sell her

Rashi reminds us that if a woman lives with her husband for 10 years and no child has been born, the man is bound to take another (Per Yevamot 64) Ramban says as much, himself. Radak even adds more detail - he states that the man could pay out her marriage settlement (Ketuvah) and divorce her and take another wife. Rashi advises us that Hagar started despising Sari. She assumed that Sari was somehow not as righteous as she was because she'd had no children all these years, yet she, Hagar, got pregnant right away. Further Radak reminds us that because she, Hagar, was carrying Abram's child, she considered herself the top-ranking wife and she stopped serving Sarai

Rashi states that Sari gave Hagar the evil eye - he believes this caused her to miscarry.  Chizkuni agrees and refers to  Mizrachi's commentary on this verse as well, so does Rabbeinu Bahya.  He states that her accusation was considered an "evil eye". Rabbeinu Bahya reminds us that  Bereshit Rabbah 45:5 says that if someone invokes the attribute of Justice against another human being, as Sari has done with Hagar, they're not going to emerge completely unharmed. In fact, Rabbeinu  Bahya states that she lost 48 years of her life for doing this! 

      Radak agrees with this as well. 

Radak points out the it wasn't likely Abram knew that Hagar was acting in any way incorrectly to Sari, and was unaware until Sari brought it up to him. Sari deferred to Abram first to protect his dignity, Abram's reply to her was to let her know that she shouldn't even consider his dignity - that Hagar was still Sari's slave and as such Sari could take care of this issue.

      Radak reminds us that despite the fact that Hagar slept with Abram, she was still Sari's slave, not his wife despite her thinking otherwise.  Radak also reminds us that Sari may very well have treated her harshly verbally as well as physically.  Even though Hagar shouldn't have treated Sari that way she did, it wasn't right for Sari to treat Hagar poorly either.  

Hagar ran away and the angel of the LORD found her by the fountain on the way to Shur. This location is mentioned again in Exodus 15:22 as one the Israelites would travel to on their way to their promised land, however in this instance, Hagar is traveling a reverse route, in fact, taking her back to Egypt! It's likely that she stopped to pray at that fountain because we read in verse 11 that the Lord heard her affliction, her prayer, and Sforno also makes that same comment. Also Sforno notes that she was likely ready to receive this divine vision as a result of hardship and prayers. In essence, she'd bottomed out

When he greeted her, he greeted her with both her name and her position, as if to remind her that that hadn't changed at all. Hagar herself didn't deny that when she referred to Sari as her mistress. The question about where she came from and where she was going wasn't asked because the angel didn't know, of course he did. This was simply a way to start the conversation. Rashi seems to think that three different angels were sent to Hagar as verses 9, 10 & 11 all start with the phrase "And the angel of the Lord said unto her" and Hagar doesn't say anything in between. 

      Further when the angel tells her to return to Sari and submit herself, Sforno and a few other commentators believe this be an allusion to the future for Hagar and her offspring to submit to the authority of the Jewish people.

In exchange for this, the angel of the Lord, speaking on GOD's behalf, says that he will also multiply her children, not add to, but multiply. Now, it's important to note that even though he said the same thing to Abram, he doesn't go on to tell her that he will make a great nation out of her, as he said to Abram!  At this point there's a bit of a disagreement between Radak and Siftei Chakhamim. Radak says she's already with child, Siftei Chakhamim states that she's being told she WILL HAVE a child because her first one miscarried, due to Sari giving her the evil eye and causing her to miscarry.  Either way both agree that she was told her child would be a son and she'd call him Ishmael, which means "God hears", to remind her that GOD heard her prayer. 

In addition, he tells her that her son will be a man that loves open spaces and hunts wild animals, and that's exactly what would be written about him in Genesis 21:20. Rashi, Rambam, and Haamek Davar all agree on this. However Chizkuni feels differently and says it means he'll be a trader, and as justification, he points to Genesis 37:25 where Joseph is sold to a caravan of Ishmael's descendants. Radak has his own interpretation and says that his descendants would become known as the Bedouins. Sforno in general seems to agree with all of the interpretations by saying that he would be at home in the desert. 

     He also points out that when the angel of the Lord described him as a wild donkey of a man, this would be due to his Egyptian traits he would inherit from his mother. In fact, Ezekiel, himself, states that the Egyptians aren't much different from wild donkeys, in Ezekiel 23:20).  All of the commentators agree that the second part of his future would be very much the same thing, he'd break laws and people would want to break him for doing it. Hagar's response, per Sforno, is an acknowledgment that she now believes that GOD can show himself anywhere, not just where Abram happens to be! As a result of this, the well is now called Beer-lahai-roi ("well of the living one that sees me"). 

     Hagar returned back to Abram, and as we can see in verse 15, she did have a son, just like the Angel said she would. We also see that Abram, not her, named him Ishmael. Now the commentators disagree on exactly how this happened. Some of them think Hagar told Abram what she was told to do, others think that the spirit of GOD told him exactly what to name his son.  No one knows for sure, but they do all agree that he was named Ishmael,  just as the angel of the Lord said he was to be named, as a constant reminder to Hagar that GOD does indeed hear! 

Almost as a postscript, we're told that Abram is 85 years old when Ishmael was born, although there's a bit of disagreement between Radak and Siftei Chakhamim about Abrams age,  Radak said 85, Siftei Chakhamim says he was 86. Either way, he wasn't a young man by any means, even in that day and age, when his son was born.

To say this was not a good situation would be an understatement. Even though Sari was acting according to the customs of the day (the Nuzzi customs) this situation turned out all wrong.  Sari offered her servant to Abram, and she really did want him to sleep with her and conceive a child with her in hopes that it would make her jealous and as a result, more fertile. This actually has a scientific basis, at least for men.  It's been shown that when one half of a dedicated couple leaves for a while the man actually starts producing more and more sperm, this is believed to be part of an old, like really old, prehistorically old, defense against another man fathering a child with that woman.

Either way, Hagar turned against Sara, Sara turned against Hagar and Hagar left. Hagar bottomed out on the road and in desperation, reached out to GOD, who in turn, heard her and intervened through an angel and told her to go back.  She was ready to hear that and she did go back.  The Bible records no more quarreling between the two of them for the remainder of their journeys together. He essentially restored this family.

GOD showed her that he can restore families, any families in fact, and he's done it throughout history. In fact there was a fairly well-known movie out not too long ago called "I can only imagine" that showed GOD bringing a family (a father and son ) back together again, even though the father's conduct was horrendous , to say the least.  GOD's like that, he can do what everyone else thinks is impossible.  How about it, is your family broken?  Are YOU the one cast out from it?  

      Reach out to GOD just like Hagar, the Egyptian slave girl, and HE'LL hear you. It didn't matter to GOD that Hagar was Egyptian, he still heard her, just as much as he heard Abram. Reach out and he'll hear you and do for you what no one else can!