Egyptian servant of Sarah, given to Abraham as a surrogate wife; mother of Ishmael
Hagar
HAY-gar
Sarah's Egyptian servant, given to Abraham as a surrogate to produce an heir; after conflict with Sarah she was twice met and comforted by God in the wilderness, and became the mother of Ishmael.
Life and work
Hagar was an Egyptian servant belonging to Sarai (Sarah), who, remaining childless, gave Hagar to Abram as a wife so that she might build a family through her — a recognized surrogate-motherhood custom of the period. Once Hagar conceived, she began to look on Sarai with contempt, and Sarai, with Abram's permission, treated her harshly enough that Hagar fled into the wilderness. There the angel of the LORD met her at a spring, told her to return and submit to Sarai, and promised that her son would be 'a wild donkey of a man' with countless offspring; Hagar named the place and God 'El-roi,' declaring 'you are a God of seeing.' She returned and bore Abram a son, Ishmael (Genesis 16:1-16).
After Isaac was born to Sarah and weaned, Sarah saw Ishmael mocking and demanded Abraham send Hagar and Ishmael away; though distressed, Abraham complied after God assured him Ishmael too would become a great nation. Hagar and Ishmael wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba until their water ran out; as Hagar wept, expecting her son to die, an angel called to her, opened her eyes to see a well of water, and repeated the promise that Ishmael would become a great nation. Ishmael grew up in the wilderness of Paran, became an archer, and Hagar found him an Egyptian wife (Genesis 21:8-21).
Later Jewish, Christian, and Islamic tradition all trace significance to Hagar and Ishmael in different ways — Islamic tradition in particular identifies Hagar as central to the founding of Mecca — though these later traditions extend well beyond the Genesis text itself. In the New Testament, Paul uses Hagar allegorically, contrasting her (representing the covenant of slavery under the law, tied to Mount Sinai) with Sarah (representing the covenant of freedom and promise) in his argument to the Galatians (Galatians 4:24-25).
- Occupation
- Servant (later concubine/surrogate wife) in Sarah and Abraham's household
- Places
- Abraham's household in Canaan; later the wilderness of Beersheba and Paran
Extra-biblical evidence
Nuzi tablets (Hurrian archive, ancient Nuzi, near modern Kirkuk, Iraq) 15th century BC cuneiform archive, excavated 1925-1931
Several Nuzi marriage contracts specify that a barren wife must provide her husband with a servant woman to bear children on her behalf, and that any son born this way could not be expelled once born — a legal backdrop that closely matches, and helps explain, Sarah's decision to give Hagar to Abraham and the seriousness of Sarah's later demand to expel Hagar and Ishmael.
Weight: Genuine excavated legal documents confirming that surrogate-motherhood arrangements like Hagar's were a real and recognized custom in the broader region during the approximate patriarchal era — valuable social-legal background, though the tablets do not mention Hagar or Abraham by name.
Scripture references
- Genesis 16:1-16 — Given to Abram as a surrogate; flees and is met by the angel of the LORD
- Genesis 21:8-21 — Expelled with Ishmael; provided for in the wilderness
- Galatians 4:24-25 — Paul's allegorical use of Hagar representing the covenant of slavery
Further reading
Reflect
Hagar, alone in the wilderness, named God 'the One who sees me' — where do you most need to know you are seen?
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