The hononr of such an alliance and elevation was too great and unexpected for the weak and ill regulated mind of Hagar ; and no sooner did she find herself in a situation, which made her, in the prospect of becoming a mother, an object of increasing interest and importance to Abraham, than she openly indulged in triumph over her less avoured mistress, and shewed by her altered be haviour a growing habit of disrespect and insolence. The feelings of Sarah were severely wounded, and she broke out to her husband in loud complaints of the servant's petulance. My wrong be upon thee,' she cried—language which is generally con sidered an impassioned burst of temper, in which she unjustly charged Abraham with causing or en couraging, by his marked attention to the concu bine, the ill usage she met with ; but it appears susceptible of other constructions much more favourable to Sarah's character. The words 'DWI 1,51, signify either My wrong be super te,' as Cocceius and others render it, i.e., lieth upon thee, pointing to his duty as her protector, and solicit ing his interference, or else, My wrong- is prop ter te'—on your account. I have exposed my self to these indignities solely out of my intense anxiety to gratify you with a son and heir.' Whichever of these interpretations we prefer, the exclamation of Sarah expresses bitter indignation at the misconduct of her slave ; and Abraham, whose meek and prudent behaviour is strikingly contrasted with the violence of his wife, leaves her with unfettered power, as mistress of his household, to take what steps she pleases to obtain the re quired redress. In all Oriental states where con cubinage is legalized, the principal wife has autho rity over the rest ; the secondary one, if a. slave, retains her former condition unchanged, and society thus presents the strange anomaly of a woman being at once the menial of her master and tin. partner of his bed. In like manner Hagar, though taken into the relation of concubine to Abraham, continued still, being a dotal maid-servant, uncle' the absolute power of her mistress, who, after her husband had left her to take her own way in vin dication of her dignity as the principal wife, was neither reluctant nor sparing in making the minion reap the fruits of her insolence. Sarah, indeed, not content with the simple exertion of her autho rity, seems to have resorted even to corporal chastisement, the word myri conveying such a meaning, and hence Augustine has drawn an ela borate argument for inflicting civil penalties on heretics (Efiist. xlviii.) But whether she actually inflicted blows, or merely threw out menaces to that effect, cannot be determined, as the two ren. derings, Sarah afflicted ' and would afflict ' her. have received equal support from respectable lexi cographers and versions. Sensible, at length, of the hopelessness of getting the better of her mis tress, Hagar determined on flight ; and having seemingly formed the purpose of returning to her relations in Egypt, she took. the direction of that country ; which led her to what was afterwards called Shur, through a long tmct of sandy unin habited country, lying on the west of Arabia Pe trtea, to the extent of 150 miles between Palestine and Egypt. In that lonely region she was sitting by a fountain to replenish her skin-bottle or recruit her wearied limbs, when the angel of the Lord, whose language on this occasion bespeaks hint to have been more than a created being, appeared. and in the kindliest manner remonstrated with her on the course she was pursuing, and encouraged her to return by the promise that she would ere long have a son, whom Providence destined to be come a great man, and whose wild and irregular features of character would be indelibly impressed on the mighty nation that should spring front him. Obedient to the heavenly visitor, and having dis tinguished the place by the name of Beer-lahai-roi, the well of the visible God,' Hagar retraced her steps to the tent of Abraham, where in due time she had a son ; and having, probably narrated this remarkable interview to Abraham, that patriarch, as directed by the angel, called the name of the child Ishmael, God hath heard.' Fourteen years had elapsed after the birth of Ishmael when an event occurred in the family of Abraham, by the appearance of the long-promised heir, which entirely changed the prospects of that young man, though nothing materially affecting him took place till the weaning of Isaac, which, as is generally thought, was at the end of his third year. Ishmael was then a lad of seventeen years of age ; and being fully capable of understanding his altered relations to the inheritance, as well as having felt perhaps a sensible diminution of Sarah's affection towards him, it is not wonderful that a disappointed youth should inconsiderately give vent to his feelings on a festive occasion, when the newly-weaned child, clad according to custom with the sacred symbolic robe, which was the badge of the birthright, was formally installed heir of the tribe (see Biblioth. Bibl. vol. i. ; Vicasi, Anna. 32 ;
Bush on Gen. xxvii. 15). Our feelings of justice naturally lead us to take part with Ishmael, as hardly dealt with in being so unexpectedly super seded after having been so long the acknowledged heir. But the procedure of Abraham in awarding the claim to the inheritance to Isaac in preference to his elder son was guided by the special command of God ; and it may be remarked, moreover, that it was in harmony with the immemorial practice of the East, where the son of a slave or secondary wife is always supplanted by that of a free woman, even if born long after. The harmony of the weaning feast was disturbed by Ishmael being dis covered mocking. The Hebrew word pn'P., though properly signifying to laugh,' is frequently used to express strong derision, as in Gen. xix. ; Neh. ; iv. ; Ezek. xxiii. 32 ; accompanied, as is probable on some of the occasions referred to in these passages, with iolent gestures ; and in accordance with this idea the Chaldee and Septua gint versions render it by I play,' which is used by the latter in 2 Sam. ii. as synonymous with boxing, whence it might very justly be charac terised as persecution (Gal. iv. 29). This conduct gave mortal offence to Sarah, who from that moment would be satisfied with nothing short of his irrevocable expulsion from the family ; and as his mother also was included in the same condem nation, there is ground to believe that she had been repeating her former insolence, as well as instigat ing her son to his improprieties of behaviour. So harsh a measure was extremely painful to the affectionate heart of Abraham ; but his scruples were removed by the timely appearance of his' divine counsellor, who said, Let it not be griev ous in thy sight, because of thc lad, and because of thy bondwoman : in all that Sarah bath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice : " for,' adds the Targum of Jonathan, she is a prophetess.' Accordingly, what she said is called the Scripture (GaL iv. 3o), and the incident affords a very re markable instance of an overruling Providence in making this family feud in the tent of a pastoral chief 4.000 years ago the occasion of separating two mighty peoples, who, according to the prophecy, have ever since occupied an important chapter in the history of man. Hagar and Ishmael departed early on the day fixed. for their removal, Abraham furnishing them with the necessary supply- of travel ling provisions. The Septuagint, which our trans lators have followed, appears to represent Ishmael as a child, placed along with the travelling-bags on the heavily-loaded shoulders of Hagar. But a little change in the punctuation, the observance of the parenthetical clause, and the construction of the word child' with the verb took,' remove the whole difficulty, and the passage will then stand thus : And Abraham rose up early in the morn ing, and took bread, and a bottle of water (and gave it unto IIagar, putting it on her shoulder), and the child, and sent her away.' In spite of their instructions for threading the desert, thc two exiles missed their way. Overcome by fatigue and thirst, increasing- at every step under the unmitigated rays of a vertical sun, the strength of the young Ishmael, as was natural, first gave way, and his mother laid him down in complete exhaustion under one of the stunted shrubs of this arid region, in the hope of his obtaining some mo mentary relief from smelling the damp in the shac.k The burning fever, however, continued unabated, and the poor woman, forgetting her own sorrow, destitute and alone in the midst of a wilderness, and absorbed in the fate of her son, withdrew to a little distance, unable to witness his lingering sufferings ; and there she lifted up her voice and wept.' In this distressing situation the angel of the Lord appeared for the purpose of comforting her, and directed her to a fountain, which, concealed by the brushwood, had escaped her notice, and from which she drew a refreshing draught, that had the effect of reviving the almost lifeless Ishmael. This well, according to the tradition of the Arabs, who pay great honour to the memory of Hagar, is Zetuzem, near Mecca.--R. J.
[The only additional fact mentioned conceming Hagar is, that she took a wife for her son, with whom she had settled in the wilderness of Paran (Gen. xxi. 21). The Apostle Paul (Gal. iv. 22, ff.) allegorises the story of Hagar, for the purpose of elucidating the relation of the Jewish to the Chris tian dispensation. Hagar he compares to the former, and Sarah to the latter ; and in order to strengthen or give point to his allegory, he lays hold of the fact (ver. 25) that, among the Arabians, Hagar is the name of Mount Sinai a stow). Pro perly the Heb.13i1 corresponds to the Arab.
; but where a general resemblance of one word to another existed, the sacred writers seem to have deemed that enough for the purpose of allegorical identification ; comp. Matt. ii. 23 ; John ix. 7 (Borger, Meyer, De \Vette, kc.