Genesis 16

Chap. XVI. Ver. 1—6. Sarai gives Hagar to Abram.—In the preceding chapter, Abram had been assured that his heir should be the fruit of his own body, but nothing is said of Sarai; they both, therefore, seem to think it necessary to devise some means for the fulfilment of the promise; and Sarai hits upon an expedient, which, though it seems strange to us, was in accordance with the custom of the times. Here we have the origin of concubinage, and it is founded in the principles of slavery; for it was upon the principle that the slave, and all her produce, belonged to her owner, constituting part of the private patrimony of a wife, that Sarai claimed the offspring of Hagar as her own. “It may be (said she) that I may have children;”

or, as the margin literally expresses it, “‘be builded by her;” for the household is built up of children. Hagar, we are told, was an Egyptian slave, supposed to have been presented to Abram by Pharaoh when he was in Egypt, and Sarai was very beautiful: this connexion, therefore, was founded, as such generally are, not in affection, but in convenience; or rather in “the crooked policy” of contriving to fulfil God’s promises, from which none of us are wholly free. The contrivance so far answered, as that Sarai had a son by Hagar; but, in the next chapter, all her plan is frustrated, and Ishmael is set aside from being heir, by the promise of a son by Sarai. In the mean time, she soon finds reason to repent her folly, for she was despised in the eyes of her own slave.

She now began to reproach her husband as slighting her, and conniving at Hagar’s conduct, who was, no doubt, elated with the thought of bringing an heir to Abram, when his own wife was barren; and probably she did not refrain from expressing her contempt for her. To calm her temper, and prevent farther jealousies, Abram returns Hagar back to her mistress, to do to her as was, “go in her eyes,” as the Hebrew expresses it: but, alas! Sarai was too much irritated and incensed, to listen to the claims of justice, or the cry of misery. She “dealt hardly with” (or afflicted) her, adding stripes perhaps to her reproaches, so that she fled into the wilderness, and there the eye of God saw and pitied her! Ver.

7—16. Hagar rescued by an angel.—Hagar, though a runaway slave, is not overlooked by Him, whose

Notes on the verses

Chap. XVI. Ver. 2. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai.—It is proper to be remarked, that though concubines (as Hagar was) are never put on a level with other wives, they have the same claims as to bed and board, and their children are legitimate: Ishmael, therefore, must have been Abram’s heir, if Isaac had not been born. See Michaelis’ Comment. by Dr. Smith. Ver. 7. Shur.—{The desert of Shur being between the south of Canaan, where Hebron was situated, and Egypt, it is probable that Hagar was returning to her own country.}—Bagsar. Ver. 12. His hand will be against every man, &c.—Alexander the Great, as is well known, overran great part of the east, and the Arabians were the only nation that sent him no ambassador; he was therefore greatly incensed, and intended an expedition against them—but he died.

Antigonus, his successor, made two attempts, which failed, and he gave up the contest. The Romans made many attempts, particularly under Trajan and Severus; and though they met with partial successes, they met with so many defeats and calamities, (partly arising from the nature of the country,) that they finally gave up the point; and the Ishmaelites at length, under the name of Saracens, overran Syria, Phoenicia, and great part of Europe, in the sixth and seventh centuries of the Christian era.—Bp. Newton on the Proph. Dis. 2. Ver. 13. Thou God seest me.—Of the last clause of this verse, Dr.

Clarke says it is “very obscure, and rendered differently in all the versions.” (See eleven senses in Poli. Synop.) The learned commentator remarks, that the word Acherey, which we render after, signifies “the last days, or aftertimes,” and refers to (Exodus 28:23). above cited, where the same word is rendered back parts; that is, after the brighter glory of his face was passed, Moses viewed the after (i. e. the mitigated) glories of the Deity. The Targums suppose Hagar favoured with a prophetic vision; and that of Jonathan represents her as saying, ‘Behold, here was revealed the glory of the Shechinah of the Lord, after vision;” i. e. after the vision of the angel. Whence also Jerome, “Verily, here have I seen the back parts of Him that seeth me.”—Biblioth.

Btb. Instead of ‘thou God seest me,” Warburton and others render the name El-roi, “the visible God;” but neither do we think this agrees so well with the original or the context. It was not from her seeing God, but from God seeing her, that Hagar derived her consolation. os