Genesischapter 16
16 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
So Hagar gave this name to the LORD who had spoken to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “Here I have seen the One who sees me!”
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Genesis Overview.
Moses wrote this chapter for Israel in the wilderness, a people who would meet Ishmael's descendants in the same deserts. It follows directly on the covenant of the chapter before, and it shows a household trying to bring that promise about by its own means. Three people carry it, a barren wife, a husband who agrees, and an Egyptian servant who is given no choice. Listen for how each one speaks to the others, and for who speaks to Hagar when she is alone. It is the first chapter in which a woman gives God a name.
Context
- Who
- Israel in the wilderness, who would meet Ishmael's descendants in the same deserts
- What
- A household account of how Sarai gave Hagar to Abram, how the plan broke the family, and how the angel of the LORD met Hagar in the desert.
- Where
- Abram's household in Canaan, and a spring on the desert road to Shur toward the border of Egypt.
- When
- The patriarchal age, ten years after Abram entered Canaan, about 2081 to 2080 BC on the traditional dating, from the chapter's own count of years and Abram's age.
- Why
- To show Israel what it cost to help God keep a promise, and that the God of the covenant saw a foreign slave in her distress.
Historical context
The chapter belongs to three people. Sarai is barren and has a legal remedy available to her, Abram agrees to it, and Hagar is an Egyptian maidservant who has no say in it.
Show the rest of the historical context, 5 more paragraphs
The time is fixed by the text. Ten years have passed since God spoke to Abram in Canaan, which places it at about 2081 BC on the traditional reckoning, and Abram is eighty six when Ishmael is born.
The place moves from a household in Canaan to a spring in the desert on the road to Shur, the track that skirts the Sinai border, which is the way a runaway would take to reach Egypt.
The occasion is a promise of descendants that has produced no child, and a household remedy applied to it.
A first hearer knew the law behind verse 2. Marriage contracts from Mesopotamia provide that a barren wife may give her husband a slave woman and that the child born counts as the wife's. The same contracts anticipate what goes wrong here, since they carry clauses forbidding the slave woman to claim equality with her mistress once she conceives and allowing the wife to put her back in her place. Sarai's harshness and Abram's answer at verse 6 are that legal formula being used.
The hearer would also have known how travel in that country worked, that a spring is the only thing that makes a desert road passable, which is why the messenger finds her at one.
Significance
Israel heard a plain account of what it cost to help God keep a promise: a household torn in two and consequences that outlived everyone in it.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
They also heard that the God of the covenant met a runaway foreign slave in the desert and spoke to her by name, gave her son a name that means God hears, and let her give Him a name of her own. The gods of the nations around them behaved differently in their stories.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
This chapter is heard inside the third portion of the annual cycle, in the same sitting as the call of Abram and the sign of circumcision (src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts). Hagar, the flight to the spring and the birth of Ishmael are read between the covenant of the pieces and the covenant of the flesh. The card above carries the portion and the prophetic reading set beside it.
How it is read
Rashi is quoted here from the public domain Rosenbaum and Silbermann edition, and Radak from the CC-BY translation of Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash.
Radak reads the first verse by the ages of the two of them. Sarai was seventy five and Abram eighty five, and she judged that the promise of children must mean children by another woman (Radak on Genesis 16:1:1). Rashi reads the ten years of the third verse as the term the law allows. A wife who has borne no child in ten years is the case in which a man takes another (Rashi on Genesis 16:3:2).
Rashi reads the words of Sarai in the second verse as a saying about children. A person without children is unsteady, and a person with them is built up (Rashi on Genesis 16:2:1, citing Genesis Rabbah 45:2). He reads her complaint in the fifth verse as a complaint about prayer. Abram had prayed for himself alone when he asked what God would give him, and she holds that he should have prayed for them both (Rashi on Genesis 16:5:1).
Radak reads the answer of Abram in the sixth verse as a plain ruling on standing. Hagar had been given the place of a wife by him and remained the servant of Sarai, and his own dignity was not to weigh in how she was treated (Radak on Genesis 16:6:1). He reads the spring of the seventh verse as a known well on the road to Shur, so that Hagar was going back toward Egypt (Radak on Genesis 16:7:1). On the tenth verse he explains why the angel speaks in the first person, since a messenger carries the words of the one who sent him (Radak on Genesis 16:10:1).
Ibn Ezra carries two comments on this chapter that the corpus holds by reference alone, because the licence Sefaria reports for the English version keeps the text out. They are Ibn Ezra on Genesis 16:7:1 and 16:8:1.
What the rabbis say
Rashi carries four sayings of the rabbis on this chapter, and each stands here as what they taught.
The first is on Hagar herself. Rashi reports that she was a daughter of Pharaoh, who saw what was done for Sarah in Egypt. Pharaoh said that his daughter would do better as a servant in that house than as a mistress in another (Rashi on Genesis 16:1:1, citing Genesis Rabbah 45:1).
The second is on how Sarai persuaded her. Rashi reports that she won her with kind words, saying she would be "privileged to consort with so holy a person as this" (Rashi on Genesis 16:3:1, citing Genesis Rabbah 45:3). The third follows from the conception. Rashi reports that Hagar conceived at once. She then said that Sarai could not be as righteous in private as she seemed in public. Sarai had borne nothing in all those years (Rashi on Genesis 16:4:1 and 16:4:2, citing Genesis Rabbah 45:4).
The fourth is on the spelling of one word in the fifth verse. Rashi reports the reading that Sarai turned the judgment toward Hagar, that the evil eye fell on her and that she lost the child she carried. On this reading the angel's word at the spring is a fresh promise of conception (Rashi on Genesis 16:5:2). He reports that a different angel was sent for each of the three sayings at the spring (Rashi on Genesis 16:9:1, citing Genesis Rabbah 45:7). Of the last verse he reports that the age is written to the credit of Ishmael, who raised no objection at thirteen when he was circumcised (Rashi on Genesis 16:16:1).
The corpus records forty places where the Midrash and the Talmud cite this chapter, thirty three under Midrash and seven under Talmud, with the locator for each one and no text. Bereshit Rabbah reads the first verse at 44:23 and 45:1, the second at 45:2 and 47:2, the third at 45:3 and the fourth at 45:4. It reads the sixth verse at 45:6, the seventh to the twelfth at 75:4, the tenth at 45:7 and 47:5, and the eleventh at 45:5 and 45:8. It reads the twelfth verse at 45:9 and the thirteenth at 20:6 and 45:10.
Bereshit Rabbati reads five verses in Parashat Lech Lecha, at 22, 24, 21, 33 and 23. Aggadat Bereshit reads the first verse at 37:1, the second at 52:1 and the twelfth at 73:1. Bamidbar Rabbah reads the third verse at 20:19, and the Mekhilta of Rabbi Yishmael reads the seventh at Tractate Vayehi Beshalach 5:4.
The Talmud is cited at Bava Kamma 92b:5 on the eighth verse, Meilah 17b:5 on the ninth to the eleventh, and Gittin 2a:2 on the well. The Jerusalem Talmud reads the third verse at Yevamot 6:6:3. Avot DeRabbi Natan reads the fifth verse at 34:5 and 34:6, and its second recension at 37:10.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Genesis 16, in Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, 1929 to 1934, public domain, about 1090; Radak, Radak on Genesis 16:1:1, 16:6:1, 16:7:1 and 16:10:1, in HaChut Hameshulash, translated by Eliyahu Munk, CC-BY, about 1200; Ibn Ezra, his two comments on Genesis 16, cited by reference; the licence Sefaria reports for the English version keeps the text out of the corpus; The Midrash and the Talmud, the forty locators on Genesis 16 in scripts/data/sources/sefaria/genesis/16.json; MannaFest, the annual cycle table at src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, 2026.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Sarai Gives Hagar to Abram
Genesis 16:1-2
had borne him no children: Hagar is an Egyptian, and the last maidservants Genesis named were the ones Pharaoh loaded on Abram at the end of chapter 12. Sarai proposes a family built through her servant, and Abram listens to the voice of Sarai. God charged Adam in the same words at 3:17, that he listened to the voice of his wife. Hagar has no voice in the plan.
Genesis 16:1
Therefore Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne no children, but she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar. She said to her husband, "Behold, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children, so go into my maidservant; perhaps I shall obtain children by her."
Bede · written before 735 · Commentary on Genesis (Hexaemeron)patristic
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Genesis 16:1
“She had a handmaid, an Egyptian - As Hagar was an Egyptian, St. Chrysostom’s conjecture is very probable. that she was one of those female slaves which Pharaoh gave to Abram when he sojourned in Egypt; see Gen 12:16. Her name הגר hagar signifies a stranger or sojourner, and it is likely she got this name in the family of Abram, as the word is pure Hebrew.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Jerome notes that Hebrew speaks of bearing children as building, so Sarai hopes to build a family through her maidservant. He compares the midwives of Exodus 1, who were given households of their own. Ambrose adds that Abram lived before the law of Moses.
Genesis 16:2
“Some might still be struck by the fact that Abraham had a relationship with his slave girl when he was already conversing with God, as it is written: "Sarah said to Abraham, 'See now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children; go in to my maid to make children from her.' " And this is exactly what happened. But we should consider first of all that Abraham lived prior to the law of Moses and before the gospel; adultery, it seems, was not yet prohibited at this time.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On Abrahampatristic
2 more voices on this verse
Genesis 16:2
“Go in unto my maid - It must not be forgotten that female slaves constituted a part of the private patrimony or possessions of a wife, and that she had a right, according to the usages of those times, to dispose of them as she pleased, the husband having no authority in the case. I may obtain children by her - The slave being the absolute property of the mistress, not only her person, but the fruits of her labor, with all her children, were her owner’s property also.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 16:2
“Herein, though he may be excused, he cannot be justified; for from the beginning it was not so: and when it was so, it seems to have proceeded from an irregular desire to build up their families, for the speedier peopling of the world.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Genesis 16:3-4
after he had lived in Canaan for ten years: The writer counts the years, ten of them in Canaan since God spoke. Sarai took Hagar and gave her to Abram, the same two verbs Genesis used of Eve at the tree in 3:6. The plan works at once. Hagar conceives, and she begins to despise her mistress.
Genesis 16:3
“Abram to be his wife--"Wife" is here used to describe an inferior, though not degrading, relation, in countries where polygamy prevails. In the case of these female slaves, who are the personal property of his lady, being purchased before her marriage or given as a special present to her, no one can become the husband's secondary wife without her mistress consent or permission.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 16:3
“It was not because he was ablaze with the heat of some unbridled passion, not because he was overcome by the charm of seductive beauty that Abraham gave preference to a relationship with a slave girl over the conjugal bed, but through a desire to procure a posterity and to enlarge his progeny. After the flood the human race was still numerically sparse. Hence it was also a matter of moral obligation that no one be seen to have failed to render the debt to nature.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On Abrahampatristic
she began to despise her mistress: John Gill reads the contempt as Hagar reproaching her mistress for being barren, as Peninnah later taunted Hannah at 1 Samuel 1:6. Gill finds it the more ungrateful since Sarai had given her to Abram herself. Hagar was pregnant, and Sarai had borne no children.
Genesis 16:4
“And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived,.... The formality of the marriage being over, he enjoyed her as his wife, and she immediately conceived by him: and when she saw that she had conceived; when she perceived that she was with child: her mistress was despised in her eyes; she thought herself above her, and treated her as her inferior, with contempt, and reproached her for her barrenness, as Peninnah did Hannah, 1Sa 1:6; and it was the more ungrateful, as it was at the motion of her mistress that she was given to Abram for wife.”
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 16:4
“It is a hard thing to bear honour aright. We justly suffer by those whom we have sinfully indulged, and it is a righteous thing with God to make those instruments of our trouble whom we have made instruments of our sin, and to ensnare us in our own evil counsels: this stone will return upon him that rolleth it.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Genesis 16:5-6
Sarai lays the wrong on Abram for a plan she made herself, and she calls on the LORD to judge between them. Abram hands the authority back and steps out of the quarrel, and Sarai treats Hagar harshly. The Hebrew verb is anah, to afflict, the same word God used at 15:13 of Israel in Egypt. An Egyptian is afflicted in Abram's house.
Genesis 16:5
“My wrong be upon thee - This appears to be intended as a reproof to Abram, containing an insinuation that it was his fault that she herself had not been a mother, and that now he carried himself more affectionately towards Hagar than he did to her, in consequence of which conduct the slave became petulant. To remove all suspicion of this kind, Abram delivers up Hagar into her hand, who was certainly under his protection while his concubine or secondary wife; but this right given to him by Sarai he restores, to prevent her jealousy and uneasiness.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
3 more voices on this verse
Genesis 16:5
“Sarai falls upon Abram, and very unjustly charges him with the injury, suspecting that he countenanced Hagar's insolence: and as one not willing to hear what Abram had to say she rashly appeals to God. The Lord judge between me and thee, as if Abram had refused to right her. When passion is upon the throne, reason is out of doors, and is neither heard nor spoken.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Genesis 16:5
“Thus does Sarai, in her passion, speak as one of the foolish women speaketh. It is an absurdity which passionate people are often guilty of to quarrel with others for that of which they themselves must bear the blame. Sarai could not but own that she had given her maid to Abram, and yet she cries out, My wrong be upon thee, when she should have said, What a fool was I to do so!”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Genesis 16:5
“My wrong be upon thee--Bursts of temper, or blows, as the original may bear, took place till at length Hagar, perceiving the hopelessness of maintaining the unequal strife, resolved to escape from what had become to her in reality, as well as in name, a house of bondage.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Sarai treated Hagar so harshly that she fled: Adam Clarke reads the word harshly as stripes and hard usage, and he lays equal blame on Sarai, who had put her servant in that place herself. Augustine clears Abram of guilt toward Hagar. She fled from her mistress carrying Abram's child.
Genesis 16:6
“Thy maid is in thy hand - Though she was his wife, he would not countenance her in any thing disrespectful to Sarai. Those who would keep up peace and love, must return first answers to hard accusations; husbands and wives particularly should endeavour not to be both angry together.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 16:6
“Sarah dealt hardly with her - תאנה teanneha, she afflicted her; the term implying stripes and hard usage, to bring down the body and humble the mind. If the slave was to blame in this business the mistress is not less liable to censure. She alone had brought her into those circumstances, in which it was natural for her to value herself beyond her mistress.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The God Who Sees Me
Genesis 16:7-8
found Hagar by a spring of water: This is the first appearance of the angel of the LORD in Scripture, and it comes to a runaway Egyptian slave. Jerome notes that the road to Shur runs through the desert toward Egypt, so she is heading home. He calls her Hagar, servant of Sarai, naming both who she is and what she ran from. She answers the first question and skips the second.
Genesis 16:7
“It were well if our afflictions would make us think of our home, the better country. But Hagar was now out of her place, and out of the way of her duty, and going further astray, when the angel found her. It is a great mercy to be stopped in a sinful way either by conscience or by Providence.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 16:7
“The angel of the Lord - That Jesus Christ, in a body suited to the dignity of his nature, frequently appeared to the patriarchs, has been already intimated.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
ConnectionsGenesis 16:13, Strong's H4397
Matthew Henry hears a warning in the second question. The road to Shur ran back to Egypt and its gods, through a dangerous desert. John Wesley notes that Hagar owns her fault when she says she is running away from her mistress.
Genesis 16:8
“Hagar, Sarai’s maid - This mode of address is used to show her that she was known, and to remind her that she was the property of another.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 16:9-10
The command comes first and it is the hard one, back under the hand that afflicted her. The promise follows after it, offspring too numerous to count, the words God had already spoken over Abram at 13:16 and 15:5. Clarke notes that the speaker promises this on his own authority, speaking as God. She is sent back with a promise.
Genesis 16:9
“Note, Those that have gone away from their place and duty, when they are convinced of their error, must hasten their return and reformation, how mortifying soever it may be. The Promise Concerning Ishmael.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
John Wesley reads the doubled Hebrew verb as offspring multiplied in every age. Matthew Henry reads the angel's words as Abram's promise of offspring too many to count, reaching a son outside the covenant. Genesis 25 names Ishmael's twelve sons.
Genesis 16:10
“I will multiply thy seed exceedingly - Who says this? The person who is called the Angel of the Lord; and he certainly speaks with all the authority which is proper to God.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 16:10
“This was in pursuance of the promise made to Abram: I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth, ch. xiii. Note, Many that are children of godly parents have, for their sakes, a very large share of outward common blessings, though, like Ishmael, they are not taken into covenant: many are multiplied that are not sanctified.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Genesis 16:11-12
you have conceived and will bear a son: Ishmael means God hears, and the angel gives the name for the cry the LORD had heard. This is the first birth announcement of its form in Scripture, and the same shape returns to Mary at Luke 1:31. He is called a wild donkey of a man, an animal that lives free of any owner. The promise and the trouble are spoken in one breath.
Genesis 16:11
“And shalt call his name Ishmael - ישמאעל Yishmael, from שמע shama, he heard, and אל El, God; for, says the Angel, The Lord Hath Heard thy affliction. Thus the name of the child must ever keep the mother in remembrance of God’s merciful interposition in her behalf, and remind the child and the man that he was an object of God’s gracious and providential goodness.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 16:11
“Ishmael, that is, God will hear; and the reason is, because the Lord hath heard: he hath, and therefore he will. The experience we have had of God's seasonable kindness in distress should encourage us to hope for the like help in the like exigencies. Even there, where there is little cry of devotion, the God of pity hears the cry of affliction: tears speak as well as prayers.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
his hand will be against everyone: Adam Clarke finds the root of the Hebrew for wild donkey in the Arabic farra, to run wild. Jerome read the words of the desert tribes of his own day, whose hand was against everyone and who were attacked by all in turn. The hostility runs both ways.
Genesis 16:12
“He will be a wild man - A wild ass of a man, so the word is: rude, and bold and fearing no man; untamed, untractable, living at large, and impatient of service and restraint. His hand will be against every man - That is his sin, and every man's hand against him - That is his punishment.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 16:12
“He will be a wild man - פרא אדם pere adam. As the root of this word does not appear in the Hebrew Bible, it is probably found in the Arabic farra, to run away, to run wild; and hence the wild ass, from its fleetness and its untamable nature.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 16:13-14
the LORD who had spoken to her: Hagar is the first person in Scripture recorded giving God a name, the God who sees me, and she is a foreign slave with no covenant of her own. She answers the angel by calling Him the LORD. Clarke reads the figure who spoke as God here as Christ appearing before His birth, and other readers take him as a created messenger. The well was called Beer-lahai-roi, between Kadesh and Bered, the well of the Living One who sees.
Genesis 16:13
“And she called the name of the Lord - She invoked (ותקרא vattikra) the name of Jehovah who spake unto her, thus: Thou God seest me! She found that the eye of a merciful God had been upon her in all her wanderings and afflictions; and her words seem to intimate that she had been seeking the Divine help and protection, for she says, Have I also (or have I not also) looked after him that seeth me? This last clause of the verse is very obscure and is rendered differently by all the versions.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 16:13
“Thou seest me, if in any instance I depart from thee. This thought should always restrain us from sin, and excite us to duty, Thou God seest me. Have I here also looked after him that seeth me? - Probably she knew not who it was that talked with her till he was departing, and then looking after him, with a reflexion like that of the two disciples, Luke xxiv, 31, 32.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
ConnectionsPsalms 139:1
It is located between Kadesh and Bered: Matthew Henry takes the name of the well as Hagar's own, kept long afterward as a memorial of God's care for a woman in distress. Didymus the Blind reads Kadesh as holy and Bered as lightning. Isaac later lives near this well.
Genesis 16:14
Wherefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi - It appears, from Gen 16:7, that Hagar had sat down by a fountain or well of water in the wilderness of Shur, at which the Angel of the Lord found her; and, to commemorate the wonderful discovery which God had made of himself, she called the name of the well באר לחי ראי beer-lachai-roi, “A well to the Living One who seeth me.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Genesis 16:14
It is well too that the vision of the instructing Word was seen "between Kadesh and Bered." Kadesh in fact is interpreted to mean "holy," and Bered, "lightning."
Didymus the Blind · written before 398 · ON GENESIS 249patristic
Genesis 16:14
“It is probable that Hagar put this name upon it; and it was retained long after, in perpetuam rei memoriam--a lasting memorial of this event. This was a place where the God of glory manifested the special cognizance and care he took of a poor woman in distress.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Genesis 16:15-16
Hagar bore Abram a son: Her return is reported only by the birth of the child in Abram's house. Abram names the boy Ishmael, a name he was never given, so what was spoken at the spring reached him from her. He is eighty-six here and ninety-nine when God speaks again, and Genesis leaves those thirteen years silent. Paul reads the two mothers as two covenants at Galatians 4:24.
Genesis 16:15
“And Hagar bare Abram a son, etc. - It appears, therefore, that Hagar returned at the command of the angel, believing the promise that God had made to her.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Abram was eighty-six years old: John Gill works the age out from 12:4, seventy-five on leaving Haran, and from the ten years in Canaan at verse 3. That makes Abram eighty-five when Hagar was given to him and eighty-six at the birth. Ishmael was his true son, as Didymus the Blind reads it.
Genesis 16:16
It is plausible to say that it was to establish the fact that Hagar was a serious woman and Ishmael an authentic son of Abraham that Scripture went out of its way to remark that Hagar bore a son "to Abram."
Didymus the Blind · written before 398 · ON GENESIS 249patristic
How this psalm is built
The form: A household narrative told by the customs of its own time, in which a wife's slave is given to her husband, as Jamieson, Fausset and Brown classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The angel of the LORD, named again and again | The title the angel of the LORD stands three times in verses 7 to 11 of the Berean text in the store, at the finding, at the command and at the announcement, with a fourth speech introduced simply as the angel. This is the first appearance of the figure in Scripture and every line of the encounter is carried by him. Nothing in the chapter is spoken to Hagar by anyone else. | Genesis 16:7, Genesis 16:9, Genesis 16:10, Genesis 16:11 |
| Ishmael, the name that means God hears | Adam Clarke reads the name from shama, he heard, and El, God, and notes that the reason is given in the same breath, since the LORD has heard her cry of affliction. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown give the same two words. John Wesley reads the tense both ways, that God will hear because He has heard.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Genesis 16:11. | Genesis 16:11 |
| A wild donkey of a man | The Hebrew of verse 12 is pere adam. Adam Clarke traces the root through the Arabic farra, to run away or run wild, which is where the wild ass gets its name. John Wesley reads the figure as a man untamed and untractable, living at large and impatient of service and restraint, which is a description of a way of life rather than a verdict on a character.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Genesis 16:12. | Genesis 16:12 |
| The two questions at the spring | The angel asks Hagar where she has come from and where she is going, and she answers the first and leaves the second alone. John Wesley reads the second question as the warning in the encounter, that the road to Shur runs toward Egypt and its gods. The command of verse 9 supplies the answer she did not give.John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765, on Genesis 16:8. | Genesis 16:8, Genesis 16:9 |
The New Testament's use
10 more paragraphs on the patterns
The birth announcement of verses 11 and 12 is the first of its form in Scripture, and the same shape returns to Mary at Luke 1:31: a woman told she has conceived, a son promised, the name given in advance, and the reason for the name supplied.
Ishmael and Isaac come back in Paul's argument. Adam Clarke, reporting Henry Ainsworth at Genesis 15:13, sets the mocking of Genesis 21:9 beside Galatians 4:29, where Paul reads the son born according to the flesh persecuting the son born according to the Spirit. The site carries a page on that allegory.
The debated concept
Who the angel of the LORD is, is the question this chapter opens for the whole Bible, since verse 7 is his first appearance.
Adam Clarke holds that Jesus Christ, in a body suited to the dignity of His nature, frequently appeared to the patriarchs, and reads verse 10 as decisive, since the speaker promises to multiply her offspring on his own authority, which belongs to God. On that reading the figure is a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ, and Hagar's naming of him in verse 13 as the God who sees her is exactly right.
The reading that takes him as a created messenger rests on the title itself, since an angel is a sent one and verse 7 calls him the angel of the LORD rather than the LORD. The strongest objection to it is verse 13, where Hagar gives the name to the LORD who had spoken to her, and the narrator lets the identification stand.
The site carries a page on Christophany where the question is worked through the whole of Scripture.
The divine connection
Hagar is the first person in Scripture recorded as giving God a name. She calls Him the God who sees me, and she is a runaway foreign slave with no part in the covenant, no standing in the household and no one looking for her. The chapter gives her a promise in the same words God had used over Abram at Genesis 13:16 and 15:5, offspring too many to count.
The command comes before the promise, and it is the hard one. She is sent back under the hand that afflicted her, and the promise is what she carries back with her. Matthew Henry reads it as the rule for anyone who has left his place and duty, that the return must be hastened however mortifying it is.
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 1869, 1885; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on Genesis 16:3; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765, on Genesis 16:2 and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on Genesis 16:4.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Ambrose of Milan, On Abraham; Augustine of Hippo, City of God; Didymus the Blind, On Genesis; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Hebrew Questions on Genesis; John Calvin, Commentary on Genesis; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.