Hagar: Flight, or, according to others, stranger, an Egyptian, Sarah's
handmaid
(Genesis 16:1; 21:9,10) whom she gave to Abraham (q.v.) as a
secondary wife
(Genesis 16:2) When she was about to become a mother she
fled from the cruelty of her mistress, intending apparently to return
to her relatives in Egypt, through the desert of Shur, which lay
between. Wearied and worn she had reached the place she distinguished
by the name of Beer-lahai-roi ("the well of the visible God"), where
the angel of the Lord appeared to her. In obedience to the heavenly
visitor she returned to the tent of Abraham, where her son Ishmael
was born, and where she remained
(Genesis 16:16) till after the birth of
Isaac, the space of fourteen years. Sarah after this began to vent
her dissatisfaction both on Hagar and her child. Ishmael's conduct was
insulting to Sarah, and she insisted that he and his mother should be
dismissed. This was accordingly done, although with reluctance on the
part of Abraham
(Genesis 21:14) They wandered out into the wilderness,
where Ishmael, exhausted with his journey and faint from thirst,
seemed about to die. Hagar "lifted up her voice and wept," and the
angel of the Lord, as before, appeared unto her, and she was comforted
and delivered out of her distresses
(Genesis 21:18,19) Ishmael
afterwards established himself in the wilderness of Paran, where he
married an Egyptian
(Genesis 21:20,21) "Hagar" allegorically represents
the Jewish church
(Galatians 4:24) in bondage to the ceremonial law; while
"Sarah" represents the Christian church, which is free.
