Introduction
Hagar is an Egyptian servant of Sarah, given to Abraham as a surrogate wife when Sarah remained childless, and the mother of Ishmael, Abraham's firstborn son.
Family
Surrogate motherhood and conflict
Following the ancient custom by which a childless wife might provide a servant to bear children on her behalf, Sarah gave Hagar to Abraham, and Hagar conceived Ishmael. Once pregnant, Hagar began to look on Sarah with contempt, leading Sarah to treat her harshly, and Hagar fled into the wilderness, where an angel of the Lord found her by a spring and told her to return and submit to Sarah, promising that her son would have numerous descendants.
Expulsion
After Isaac's birth, tension between the households led Sarah to insist that Abraham send Hagar and Ishmael away. Abraham, though distressed, did so after God assured him Ishmael too would become a great nation. Hagar and Ishmael nearly died of thirst in the wilderness of Beersheba until God opened her eyes to see a well of water, and the text records that Ishmael grew up in the wilderness of Paran, with Hagar arranging his marriage to an Egyptian woman.