Genesis 16:1-16; Genesis 21:9-21; Gal 4:22-31.
Hagar (Heb. Hâgâr, “flee” or “stranger”; in Nab., Sudar., Pal. inscriptions and on a seal found at Jericho the forms hgr and hgrw, “city” appear; Gr. Hagar). Egyptian servant of Abraham, perhaps acquired during her stay in Egypt (Gen 16:1; cf 12:10,16). At Sarah’s insistence, Abraham took Hagar as his secondary wife according to the customs of the time, after having been in Canaan for about 10 years (CBA 1:329,330). She was then 84 years old and childless, and by this act she hoped to have an heir. When Hagar found out that she was pregnant, she sneered at her mistress. That is why Sarah treated her servant harshly, the one who fled into the desert. As she was wandering between Kadesh and Bered on her way to Egypt, an angel of the Lord appeared to her at a well and sent her back to her mistress, promising that her son would bring forth a great nation. This experience led her to name the well: Well of the Living One-who-sees-me.* She obeyed the angel’s direction, returned to Abraham’s camp, and later gave birth to a baby boy whom Abraham named Ishmael* (16: 1-16). Some years later, Ishmael mocked little Isaac, who was later born to Sarah (Gen 21:9). The “mockery” is described in Gal. 4:29 like a chase. Then Sara asked that Hagar and Ishmael be expelled from the family group. Abraham did not agree to the demand, but received divine direction that he should do so. Hagar and her son were fired. They were lost in the desert of Beersheba and were about to perish of thirst when the angel of the Lord appeared to them again, directed them to a well, and reminded Hagar of his earlier promise regarding Ishmael (Gen 21:9 – 19). The last mention of Hagar in the OT is a reference to her 26 choosing an Egyptian woman as the wife of her son (v 21). In the NT she is noted as a symbol of the old covenant (Gal. 4:22-31).
Source: Evangelical Bible Dictionary
possibly from Arabic hadchara, hidshra, to flee. Egyptian slave of Sarah, the wife of Abraham. As she was barren, she asked Abraham to take her as a concubine so that the slave would give him offspring Gn 16, 2. According to Mesopotamian law, a barren wife could give her husband a slave as a concubine, and recognize as their own the children born in this union, as happened later with ® Raquel and ® Lía. Thus, A. conceived from Abraham and bore him a son, Ishmael, the trunk from which the peoples called Ishmaelites and Agarenes Gn 25, 12-16 descend. Already pregnant, A. looked at Sara with disdain, and she asked Abraham to define the situation between the two.
This left her at the discretion of Sara who began to mistreat her for which A. fled to the desert Gn 16, 4-6, hence its allegorical name. Once there, the angel of Yahweh found her and ordered her to return and submit to Sarah and promised to greatly multiply her offspring Gen 16, 11-15. A. She returned to Abraham and bore Ishmael. Sarah also had her son Isaac. Once the children were grown, one day when they were playing together, Sara asked her husband to throw A. and Ismael out, because she did not conceive how the slave’s son could inherit along with hers. The Lord urged Abraham to do what his wife asked of him, which he did the next morning, having supplied them with provisions. Wandering A. with her son in the desert, and about to perish of thirst, the angel of God showed him a well of water. A. stayed to live there and gave Ishmael an Egyptian woman for a wife Gn 21, 8-21.
Paul in his epistle to the Galatians, compares the two women, the slave, A., and the free, Sarah, with the two alliances, the old and the new, the slavery of the old law and the freedom that Christ brought Ga 4, 22-31.
Digital Bible Dictionary, Grupo C Service & Design Ltda., Colombia, 2003
Source: Digital Bible Dictionary
(Heb., haghar, emigration, flight). The Egyptian servant Sarah, following the customs of her time, gave her husband Abram as wife (Gen 16: 1-16). When Hagar found out that he had conceived he despised his mistress, causing trouble in that home. Hagar fled from Sarah, but the angel of the Lord appeared to her and sent her back to her mistress (Gen 16:7-14). During a great feast given in connection with Isaac’s weaning, Ishmael scoffed at the procedure (Gen 21:9), so Sarah insisted that Hagar and his son be cast out, to which Abraham agreed against the will. will of him. God told Abraham that Ishmael’s descendants would become a nation. The last mention of Hagar is related to his taking from Egypt, his native land, a woman to be his son’s wife (Gen 21:1-21). Paul allegorized Hagar’s experience in relation to the difference between law and grace (Gal 4:21—Gal 5:1).
Source: Hispanic World Bible Dictionary
(City, district).
Name of Sarah’s servant, who fathered a son for Abraham, Ishmael, from whom the Muslims descend, a people prophesied in Gen 21:13, Gen 16:1-16, Gen 21:1-21.
– His story is an allegory of the difference between law and grace, in Gal 4:21 to 5:1.
Christian Bible Dictionary
Dr. J. Dominguez
http://bible.com/dictionary/
Source: Christian Bible Dictionary
(The one that wanders or flees). †¢Sarah’s servant, probably one of those that Pharaoh gave to Abraham (Gen 12:16). Sara seeing that the years passed and she did not conceive a child, made her husband come to A., perhaps thinking that in this way the promise that had been made by God to the patriarch that he would have offspring would be fulfilled (Gen 16: 2 ). A. became pregnant, after which she despised her mistress, who was barren (Gen 16:4). Sarah kicked her out of the home and A. wandered through the desert, where an angel tells her that her son would be called Ishmael, God hears, who would be the father of many nations (Gen 16:10), but that he must return to his love and submit (Gen 16:9).
A. names the place of this revelation “Well of the Living One-who-sees-me” (Gen 16:14). Abraham was eighty-six years old when Ishmael was born (Gen 16:16). Later, Sarah conceived according to God’s promise and bore Isaac. When he was weaned, Abraham held a great party, in which Ishmael made fun of Isaac, which Sarah saw, who again asked Abraham to throw her out “because the son of this maidservant shall not inherit with Isaac my son” ( Genesis 21:8-10). That worried Abraham, but God told him that she would protect Ishmael, for which A. was fired from her, going to the desert, where lacking water, she put her son † œunder a bush † so as not to see him die . An angel told him about her, reaffirming the divine promise and showing him a fountain (Gen 21: 17-19). When Ishmael grew up, A. found him a wife in Egypt (Gen 21:21).
Paul takes these incidents as “an allegory” in which “the two covenants” are represented (Gal 4:24), one from “the Jerusalem that is now” and the other from “the Jerusalem that is above”. The first “is in bondage” and the second “is free” (Gal 4:25-26). The descendants of both represent, one to those born “according to the flesh” and the other to those born “according to the Spirit”, who are the believers, that is, “the children of the promise”, who are free in Christ. In Jewish legends and traditions it is said of A. that: a) she was the daughter of Pharaoh, who gave her as a servant to Abraham; b) her criticism of Sara consisted of accusing her mistress of avoiding her children to preserve the beauty of her body; c) †¢Cetura, the woman that Abraham took after Sarah’s death, was A., who returned to the true faith.
Source: Christian Bible Dictionary
tip, BIOG TYPE WOMAN MUAT
see, ISMAEL = “wanderer”. Greek form of the Hebrew name “Hagar”, Egyptian slave of Sarah. Abraham accepted her as her concubine, according to the Semitic custom of that time, being Sara barren (Gen. 16: 1), and already having 76 years. Hagar was accepted as such at the request of Sarah, who wanted to obtain the title of her mother and make possible the succession of Abraham. When Hagar, proud to be pregnant, mocked Sarah, she turned to Abraham, since she was already his slave; he ended the concubinage and gave the slave to her owner, who outraged her in such a way that she Agar fled to the desert; There an angel appeared to her, who ordered her to return to Sarah’s house and announced that her son from her womb, (Ishmael), would be the father of peoples and a strong man (Gen. 16). (See ISMAEL) After the birth of Isaac the rivalry continued between the two women and again Hagar and her son went to the desert, where they were about to die of thirst, when again the angel showed them the springs of water. With God’s help they survived in the desert and Ishmael grew up there (Gen. 21). The last passage that mentions Hagar in the Old Testament shows us her looking for a wife for her son in Egypt, the country from which she herself had left (Gen. 21: 1-21). Paul gives us the allegorical application of these events (Gal. 4:21-31), showing the freedom in which the new pact places us, in grace, against the slavery in which those who return to subject themselves to the law fall. (Gal. 5:1).
Source: New Illustrated Bible Dictionary
Hagar (or Hagar) is the Egyptian wife of Abraham. (Gen. 16. 1-16 and 21 9-33). Being the slave of Sara, his first wife, she gave him a son, Ishmael. He would be the father of the 12 Arab tribes or clans (Gn. 21. 18). She is a central figure in Mohammedan genealogy, which venerates her memory, as Jews and Christians celebrate Isaac, the son of promise, and later Jacob or Israel. According to the Koran, Ishmael is the “true in the promise and the one sent as a prophet” (sura 16.55). He is the “favorite of Allah” (sura 38. 48) for being the first.
Sarah’s jealousy prompted Abraham to send Hagar away with her son. She crossed the desert. She was the object of divine protection and her son was made the father of many peoples.
The best catechesis of this figure is offered by Saint Paul, who, due to her quality as a slave, compares her to the Old Testament, in contrast to Sara, the free one, the chosen one, sign of the New Covenant (Gal. 4. 21-31 ). The exegesis of this text is complicated, but guiding.
Pedro Chico González, Dictionary of Catechesis and Religious Pedagogy, Editorial Bruño, Lima, Peru 2006
Source: Dictionary of Catechesis and Religious Pedagogy
“And also from the son of the maidservant I will make a nation, because he is your descendant” Genesis 21:9-21.
Read: Gen 21:9-21. Hagar had been taken out of Egypt when she was a child and sold into slavery. She had probably already been with Sarah in Ur of the Chaldeans. The fact is that among many male and female servants, Hagar was held in great esteem by her mistress. This is evident from the fact that when Sarah wanted Abraham to have a child, when she thought she was barren, she gave her to Abraham, so that he would be born of Hagar the son of promise. From Sara’s point of view, it was impossible to bestow greater honor on a slave.
And yet, this constituted a sin before God, for all three though less so for Hagar. It was a sin and as such it remained, because the sexual act is not…