Hagar

About Hagar

Hagar was an Egyptian maidservant of Sarah, Abraham's wife. When Sarah was unable to conceive, she gave Hagar to Abraham as a concubine to bear a child on her behalf, following the custom of the time (Gen.16.1-3). Hagar conceived and gave birth to a son named Ishmael (Gen.16.15). However, tensions arose between Hagar and Sarah, leading Sarah to mistreat Hagar, who then fled into the wilderness (Gen.16.4-6). An angel of the Lord appeared to Hagar, instructing her to return and submit to Sarah, and promising that her descendants would be greatly multiplied (Gen.16.7-10). Years later, after Isaac was born to Sarah, Hagar and Ishmael were sent away by Abraham at Sarah's insistence (Gen.21.9-14). God heard Ishmael's cry in the wilderness and provided for him and Hagar, promising to make Ishmael into a great nation (Gen.21.17-21). In the New Testament, Paul uses Hagar and Sarah as an allegory, with Hagar representing the old covenant of slavery under the law, and Sarah representing the new covenant of freedom through Christ (Gal.4.24-25). Hagar's story illustrates God's care for the oppressed and His faithfulness to His promises, even to those outside the primary line of Abraham's descendants.

Description from STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0, lightly reformatted. This is background reference material, not Scripture and not a FaithGraph editorial claim.