Genesis 16:1-16
The Birth of Ishmael

16:1-4. maidservants. Slave women or bondswomen were considered both property and legal extensions of their mistress. As a result it would be possible for Sarai to have Hagar perform a variety of household tasks as well as to use her as a surrogate for her own barren womb.

16:2. contractual arrangements for barrenness. Concubines did not have the full status of wives but were girls who came to the marriage with no dowry and whose role included childbearing. As a result concubinage would not be viewed as polygamy. In Israel, as in most of the ancient world, monogamy was generally practiced. Polygamy was not contrary to the law or contemporary moral standards but was usually not economically feasible. The main reason for polygamy would be that the first wife was barren. In the Bible most cases of polygamy among commoners occur prior to the period of the monarchy.

16:3-4. surrogate mothers. Surrogate mothers appear only in the ancestral narratives: Hagar and the two maidservants of Rachel and Leah (Gen 30). There is no contract mentioned here, since these women were all legal extensions of their mistress and any children they bore could be designated as the children of their mistress. The eighteenth century b.c. Babylonian Code of Hammurabi does contain surrogate contracts for priestesses who were not allowed to conceive children. As in the biblical examples, these surrogates had a lower legal standing than the wife.

16:5-6. relationship of Sarah and Hagar. Women in the ancient world obtained honor through marriage and children. Although Hagar was a servant, the fact that she had conceived a child and Sarai had not gave her cause to hold her mistress in contempt. Sarai's reaction in abusing Hagar may be based on both jealousy and class difference.

16:7-10. angel as messenger. The word translated “angel” simply means “messenger” in Hebrew and can be used for either human or supernatural messengers. Since these messengers represent God, they do not speak for themselves, but only for God. It is therefore not unusual for them to use the first person, “I.” Messengers were granted the authority to speak for the one they represented and were treated as if they were the one they represented.

16:13-14. “seeing God.” Hagar affirms a supernatural identity for the messenger and may well believe that the messenger was indeed a deity, but the fact that she expresses incredulity about the likelihood of having seen a deity does not mean that she actually has seen one (additionally the text is very difficult to translate and may not even suggest this much). Most likely Hagar is expressing surprise that she has encountered a deity who is inclined to show favor to her in such an unlikely place.

16:13. naming God. The text identifies the deity as the Lord (Yahweh) but gives no indication that Hagar knew it was Yahweh. This is the only example in the Old Testament of someone assigning a name to deity. Usually naming someone or something is a way of affirming authority over the one named. Here it is more likely that since she does not know the name of the deity that has shown her favor, she assigns a name to him as an identification of his nature and so that she might invoke him in the future.

16:14. Kadesh and Bered. The location of the well of Beer Lahai Roi, where Hagar experienced a theophany and was told of her son's future, is most likely in the Negev between Kadesh Barnea and Bered. The oasis of Kadesh Barnea is in the northeast section of the Sinai, on the southern border of the Wilderness of Zin (see comment on Num 13). Since Bered does not appear elsewhere in the text, its location is uncertain, though Jebel umm el-Bared to the southeast is as good a guess as any.