Summary
Sarai, Abram's wife, has borne no children, so she sends her husband to Hagar, her slave girl, to bear Abram a child. Hagar conceives, and gives Sarai dirty looks, so Sarai "deals harshly with her". The Angel of the LordTM finds Hagar on the road to Shur, and sends her back to Sarai with the knowledge that her son will be named Ishmael, and he will be a "wild ass of a man" (Gen 16:12). Isn't that just heartwarming.
Commentary
So, some interesting interplay here at the beginning of this chapter. Sarai owns a slave-girl named Hagar, and because Sarai is not conceiving a child, despite God's promises, she suggests Abram have a child with Hagar, so that she "shall obtain children by her." (Gen 16:2) Clearly there is nothing unwise about this plan at all. Clearly.
So Hagar conceives, and that pretty well illustrates to her that the problem isn't Abram, but Sarai, which causes Hagar to look upon her "with contempt." (Gen 16:4) Sarai, in purely logical fashion, blames Abram for causing her slave to look upon her with contempt. She even asks the Lord to judge between them. This doesn't end up happening, though, because Abram simply replies that Hagar is "in [Sarai's] power, do to her as you please." (Gen 16:6) Sarai does something harsh enough to make Hagar decide to run, though the chapter doesn't go into further detail than to say that Sarai "dealt harshly with her" (Gen 16:6).
It's hard for me to say how I feel about this, because there's a lot of difficult stuff in there. I can only imagine how hard it would be for a woman to be in Sarai's position, with the patriarchal society requiring children to further the family line. In what seems to be desperation she suggests Abram should try things with Hagar, and Sarai discovers in the process that the problem seems to be her. This would be a very difficult way to find out a very difficult thing. There's a lot of hurt going around and like most people she lashes out at the people near her. It seems a rather reasonable, if unfortunate, outcome.
Regardless of this, Hagar runs from the ire of her mistress and stops at a spring of water in the wilderness, where she is found by The Angel of the LordTM. I think it's fascinating how many things happen at interesting land forms in the wilderness. A spring, a grove...even a rock used as a pillow. The Angel of the LordTM tells Hagar to return and submit to Sarai, agreeing to "so greatly multiply [Hagar's] offspring that they cannot be counted for multitude" in return for her obedience (Gen 16:10). The theme of fertility and having a crap-ton of children rears its head again here.
What interests me most here is my own reaction to the themes of fertility and plenty-o-kids. I know, intellectually, that when you don't expect all of your children to live to maturity and when you live in an agrarian society that children are life and future, but it still feels weird to see these people obsess so much about something that I've barely considered.
The very last bit of this chapter is a quick peek ahead into the life of Ishmael, son of Hagar and Abram. According to Wikipedia, Ishmael is considered to be the progenitor of the northern Arab peoples by Islamic tradition and much of the Jewish traditions as well. It's understandable, I suppose, that the Hebrew scripture would describe him as a "wild ass of a man, with his hand against everyone, and everyone's hand against him" (Gen 16:12). It's also appropriate that, according to Wikipedia, he is more positively regarded and given a much larger role in the Islamic tradition, so we'll just chalk this up to good old-fashioned intolerance.
The last two verses of the chapter are quite formulaic:
"Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael." (Gen 16: 15-16)Funny moment. Due to the age inflation in Genesis, when I was reading the above quote I inserted the word "only" before Abram's age. It's a sad day when you're starting to think eighty-six is young. I find the reptetition of Hagar's name a little amusing; it's like the author wanted to be extremely clear that this child was not from Abram's wife.
Hagar's baby. Just in case it wasn't clear.
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