Hagar: The Only Female Fugitive Hero

In his pioneering book from 1976, Studies in the Structure of Hebrew Narrative, the Canadian scholar Robert Culley (1932–2013), of blessed memory, compared the structure of the two Hagar narratives in Genesis 16 and 21.^[1] He notes two rather general parallels:

1. Hagar flees or is driven out to the wilderness from Abram (Abraham) with Sarai (Sarah) as instigator.
2. A messenger intervenes with [a] promise about [a] son.

Culley also indicates “obvious” “points of difference between the two scenes”:

In the first story, Hagar runs away herself, while in the second she is driven out. In the first story, Hagar is pregnant but in the second she has her baby son with her.^[2]

In addition, in the first story, Hagar stops at a water source; in the second, she thinks she and her son will die of thirst, and the messenger, the angel (מַלְאַךְ), guides her to water. We can distinguish the two stories in one other respect as well: only the first episode conforms to the fugitive hero pattern,^[3] and it is the only narrative of this type in which a woman is the protagonist.

Fugitive hero narratives were widespread in time and place in the ancient Near East. Exemplars extend from the early second millennium B.C.E. to the sixth century B.C.E., from Egypt to Babylonia, from Asia Minor (Hatti) to Israel. The typical fugitive hero tale concerns a protagonist—a hero—who is compelled to leave home due to a crisis, who encounters a supportive deity during a period of self-imposed or externally imposed exile, and who returns to a position of leadership and/or high standing.^[4]

All the larger narratives in this pattern, and several of the shorter ones, conclude with the establishment or renewal of a cult or cultic practice. Analyzing the elements of, and variations from, this shared pattern in the story of Hagar helps explain puzzling details and developments in the narrative.

1. A Political and/or Personal Crisis

Relative to the size of the story, the background of Hagar’s flight—the crisis—is told expansively. Sarai assigns Hagar to surrogate duty, but conveys her to Abram “as a wife,” perhaps an allusion to a more elevated status:^[5]

^{בראשׁית טז:ג} וַתִּקַּח שָׂרַי אֵשֶׁת אַבְרָם אֶת הָגָר הַמִּצְרִית שִׁפְחָתָהּ מִקֵּץ עֶשֶׂר שָׁנִים לְשֶׁבֶת אַבְרָם בְּאֶרֶץ כְּנָעַן וַתִּתֵּן אֹתָהּ לְאַבְרָם אִישָׁהּ לוֹ לְאִשָּׁה.

^{Gen 16:3} So Sarai, Abram’s wife, took her maid, Hagar the Egyptian—after Abram had dwelt in the land of Canaan ten years—and gave her to her husband Abram as wife.^[6]

When she becomes pregnant, she unsurprisingly turns uppity toward Sarai:

^{בראשׁית טז:ד} וַיָּבֹא אֶל הָגָר וַתַּהַר וַתֵּרֶא כִּי הָרָתָה וַתֵּקַל גְּבִרְתָּהּ בְּעֵינֶיהָ.

^{Gen 16:4} He cohabited with Hagar and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was lowered in her esteem.

Proverbs warns against such an eventuality:

‏^{משׁלי ל:כא} תַּחַת שָׁלוֹשׁ רָגְזָה אֶרֶץ וְתַחַת אַרְבַּע לֹא תוּכַל שְׂאֵת׃ ^ל:כב תַּחַת עֶבֶד כִּי יִמְלוֹךְ וְנָבָל כִּי יִשְׂבַּע לָחֶם. ^ל:כג תַּחַת שְׂנוּאָה כִּי תִבָּעֵל וְשִׁפְחָה כִּי תִירַשׁ גְּבִרְתָּהּ.

^{Prov 30:21} The earth shudders at three things, at four which it cannot bear: ^30:22 A slave who becomes king; a scoundrel sated with food; ^30:23 a loathsome woman who gets married; a slave-girl who supplants her mistress.

Sarai blames Abram for the situation that she created:

^{בראשׁית טז:ה} וַתֹּאמֶר שָׂרַי אֶל אַבְרָם חֲמָסִי עָלֶיךָ אָנֹכִי נָתַתִּי שִׁפְחָתִי בְּחֵיקֶךָ וַתֵּרֶא כִּי הָרָתָה וָאֵקַל בְּעֵינֶיהָ יִשְׁפֹּט יְ־הוָה בֵּינִי וּבֵינֶיךָ.

^{Gen 16:5} Sarai said to Abram, “The wrong done me is your fault! I myself put my maid in your bosom; now that she sees that she is pregnant, I am lowered in her esteem. YHWH decide between you and me!”

Egyptian Ruddedet and Her Impudent Maid

Hagar’s story echoes an Egyptian prose narrative comprising a series of magical or miracle tales in the Westcar Papyrus.^[7] Disguised as women, goddesses assist Ruddedet in delivering three sons who are destined for kingship. After the births, “Ruddedet had a quarrel with her maid, and had her punished with a beating.”

The offended maid wants to bring a protest to the king, but she first encounters her brother, who is not at all sympathetic. He whips her, and when she seeks relief, she ends up being snatched by a crocodile. In that woeful tale it does not pay to be a whistle-blower against your mistress.

This story shares with the episode of Sarai and Hagar that the maid is at first very much appreciated, just as Hagar is found to serve Sarai’s need to provide Abram with a son. The Egyptian maid is also seen by her brother as chutzpadik, just as Hagar is viewed by Sarai as arrogant.

The Egyptian composition harks back to the Old Kingdom, although it was set down in the mid-second millennium B.C.E. Found on a single papyrus, it is unlikely to have been known in Israel. But, coming from the broader ancient Near Eastern milieu, it features several motifs found in Hagar’s story as well.

Sarai’s Hostility toward Hagar

Abram gives Sarai permission to treat Hagar as she thinks best:

^{בראשׁית טז:ו} וַיֹּאמֶר אַבְרָם אֶל שָׂרַי הִנֵּה שִׁפְחָתֵךְ בְּיָדֵךְ עֲשִׂי לָהּ הַטּוֹב בְּעֵינָיִךְ....

^{Gen 16:6a} Abram said to Sarai, “Your maid is in your hands. Deal with her as you think right.”

Had Hagar’s status not been elevated to a wife, Sarai could have handled her on her own and not enlisted the intervention of Abram.^[8]

2 The Hero Flees or is Exiled

The name “Hagar” is widely, and correctly, connected to Arabic hajara, “to leave, to emigrate,” and modern Hebrew higger, “to emigrate.”^[9] In conformity with the fugitive hero pattern, Hagar flees following a conflict—her mistreatment by Sarai:^[10]

^{בראשׁית טז:ו} ...וַתְּעַנֶּהָ שָׂרַי וַתִּבְרַח מִפָּנֶיהָ.

^{Gen 16:6b} Then Sarai afflicted her, and she ran away from her.

The Piel verb עִנָּה, “to afflict,” echoes the forecast that YHWH had given to Abram that his descendants would be “afflicted” in a foreign land—proleptically referring to the “affliction” (עֳנִי; e.g., Exod 3:7; 4:31; Deut 26:6–7) of the Hebrews in Egypt:^[11]

^{בראשׁית טו:יג} וַיֹּאמֶר לְאַבְרָם יָדֹעַ תֵּדַע כִּי גֵר יִהְיֶה זַרְעֲךָ בְּאֶרֶץ לֹא לָהֶם וַעֲבָדוּם וְעִנּוּ אֹתָם אַרְבַּע מֵאוֹת שָׁנָה.

^{Gen 15:13} He said to Abram, “Know well that your offspring shall be strangers in a land not theirs, and they shall be enslaved and afflicted four hundred years.”

The apparent allusion supports the impression that the Hagar episode follows the revelation to Abram in a connected narrative sequence.

We might have expected Sarai to have acted more sympathetically. She had earlier been taken as a concubine by the king of Egypt (Gen 12:15). Hagar, however, is identified in our story as an “Egyptian” (v. 1) and may have been part of the booty that Abram and Sarai received when they left Egypt (Gen 12:16).^[12] Thus, perhaps Sarai’s hostility toward Hagar is heightened because Hagar is a living reminder of Sarai’s horrific experience.

3. The Hero Has a Divine Encounter

Hagar stops at a fountain on the road to Shur, which is located between Hebron, where Abram and Sarai were living, and Egypt.^[13] The narrator’s favorable view of Hagar is expressed in the fact that the angel approaches her, rather than her seeking an oracle, as in several other fugitive hero stories:

^{בראשׁית טז:ז} וַיִּמְצָאָהּ מַלְאַךְ יְ־הוָה עַל עֵין הַמַּיִם בַּמִּדְבָּר עַל הָעַיִן בְּדֶרֶךְ שׁוּר. ^טז:ח וַיֹּאמַר הָגָר שִׁפְחַת שָׂרַי אֵי מִזֶּה בָאת וְאָנָה תֵלֵכִי וַתֹּאמֶר מִפְּנֵי שָׂרַי גְּבִרְתִּי אָנֹכִי בֹּרַחַת.

^{Gen 16:7} The angel of YHWH found her by a fountain^[14] of water in the wilderness, the spring on the road to Shur, ^16:8 and said, “Hagar, handmaid of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?” And she said, “I am running away from my mistress Sarai.”

To underscore the initiative of YHWH’s angel, each part of his discourse is introduced by the repetitive formula, “the angel of YHWH said to her.” He first instructs Hagar to return home:

^{בראשׁית טז:ט} וַיֹּאמֶר לָהּ מַלְאַךְ יְ־הוָה שׁוּבִי אֶל גְּבִרְתֵּךְ וְהִתְעַנִּי תַּחַת יָדֶיהָ.

^{Gen 16:9} The angel of YHWH said to her, “Go back to your mistress, and submit to her harsh treatment.”

Before Hagar leaves, however, the angel does give her an oracle:

‏^{בראשׁית טז:י} וַיֹּאמֶר לָהּ מַלְאַךְ יְ־הוָה הַרְבָּה אַרְבֶּה אֶת זַרְעֵךְ וְלֹא יִסָּפֵר מֵרֹב.

^{Gen 16:10} The angel of YHWH said to her, “I will greatly increase your offspring, and they shall be too many to count.”

4. An Alternative to the Hospitality Scene

One of the optional but widespread sections of the fugitive hero narratives that is missing in the story of Hagar is the hospitality shown to the hero in exile and his marriage to his host’s daughter. Such a scenario would be inappropriate in a hero story with a woman protagonist. In its place, we encounter an alternate plot sequence that is keyed specifically to women: the annunciation type-scene.^[15]

The angel announces to Hagar, using formulaic language, that she will bear a son:^[16]

^{בראשׁית טז:יא} וַיֹּאמֶר לָהּ מַלְאַךְ יְ־הוָה הִנָּךְ הָרָה וְיֹלַדְתְּ בֵּן וְקָרָאת שְׁמוֹ יִשְׁמָעֵאל כִּי שָׁמַע יְ־הוָה אֶל עָנְיֵךְ. ^טז:יב וְהוּא יִהְיֶה פֶּרֶא אָדָם יָדוֹ בַכֹּל וְיַד כֹּל בּוֹ וְעַל פְּנֵי כָל אֶחָיו יִשְׁכֹּן.

^{Gen 16:11} The angel of YHWH said to her further, “Here, you are pregnant and will give birth to a son; you shall call him Ishmael, for YHWH has paid heed to your suffering. ^16:12 He shall be a wild ass of a man; His hand against everyone, and everyone’s hand against him; he shall dwell alongside of all his kinsmen.”

Few commentators have noted the contextual conundrum in Hagar’s story, however: She fled from Sarai after she realized that she was pregnant, and thus the angel is telling her something she already knows. In order to resolve the apparent inconsistency, Rashi (11^th century France) imagines that Hagar had miscarried after her first impregnation:

^{רש״י, נראשית טז:ה} הכניסה עין הרע בעיבורה של הגר והפילה עוברה. הוא שהמלאך אומר להגר: הנך הרה. היא כבר הרתה, והוא מבשר לה שתהר? אלא מלמד שהפילה הריון ראשון.

^{Rashi, Gen 16:5} (Sarai) levelled an evil eye on Hagar’s fetus and caused her a miscarriage. That is the meaning of the angel’s saying to Hagar, “here, you are pregnant.” She had already been pregnant, and now he announces that she will be pregnant? This informs us that she had miscarried her first fetus.^[17]

It is more in keeping with the biblical storyline, however, that the angel’s announcement is an integral part of the annunciation topos and is therefore included, albeit redundantly, by convention.

5. The Hero Introduces a Cultic Innovation

Founding or renewing a cult or ritual is ordinarily the last stage in a fugitive hero narrative, after the hero has returned home. Hagar, however, lacks the authority and power, as an abused handmaid, to establish anything in the household to which she must return. Accordingly, the narrator sets her cultic innovations while she is still in the desert, when she is relatively autonomous, free of the constraints of serving in the Abram-Sarai household.

First, she names the angel אֵל רֳאִי, “God who has seen me”:

‏^{בראשׁית טז:יג} וַתִּקְרָא שֵׁם יְ־הוָה הַדֹּבֵר אֵלֶיהָ אַתָּה אֵל רֳאִי כִּי אָמְרָה הֲגַם הֲלֹם רָאִיתִי אַחֲרֵי רֹאִי.

^{Gen 16:13} She called YHWH who spoke to her, “You Are El-roi,” by which she meant, “Have I not gone on seeing after He saw me!”

Second, her divine encounter is memorialized in the name of the well where they met בְּאֵר לַחַי רֹאִי—a philological conundrum which Nahum Sarna plausibly explains as “The Well of Clan of Ro’i”:^[18]

^{בראשׁית טז:יד} עַל כֵּן קָרָא לַבְּאֵר בְּאֵר לַחַי רֹאִי הִנֵּה בֵין קָדֵשׁ וּבֵין בָּרֶד.

^{Gen 16:14} Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; it is between Kadesh and Bered.

6. The Hero Returns Home

The return is an essential feature of the fugitive hero pattern: the protagonist is restored to or granted a position or power and/or honor. Hagar, however, enjoys no elevation of status on her return. Indeed, we only learn of her return by implication, when Hagar is said to give birth in Abram’s household.^[19]

^{בראשׁית טז:טו} וַתֵּלֶד הָגָר לְאַבְרָם בֵּן וַיִּקְרָא אַבְרָם שֶׁם־בְּנוֹ אֲשֶׁר יָלְדָה הָגָר יִשְׁמָעֵאל.

^{Gen 16:15} Hagar bore a son to Abram, and Abram gave the son that Hagar bore him the name Ishmael.

In addition, even though Hagar was instructed by the supportive angel to give her son the name Ishmael (v. 11), that privilege is ultimately assumed by Abram, the father and head of the household. Hagar is no longer the focus of the narrative—it has shifted back to Abram and the matter of his inheritance, which had occupied the preceding episodes and will occupy the succeeding ones.

Yet as George Savran reminds us, the naming of the well in this story relates to Hagar’s misery and not to the child that she is expecting to bear.^[20] Thus, the first episode about Hagar focuses on her; only in the second episode will Ishmael become the focus (ch. 21).

By shaping the first story of Hagar in the mold of the fugitive hero pattern, we can better appreciate the divine support that she receives, the quasi-heroism of her actions, and, not least, the special features of this particular example of the story, which twists two main features of the established fugitive hero pattern: Hagar’s return is to subordination; accordingly, her achievement in cultic innovation is made while she is in exile.

Hagar’s Subsequent Banishment

The second Hagar episode (ch. 21), as noted earlier, does not conform to the fugitive hero pattern. There the event precipitating the expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael is not really a crisis or conflict; rather, Sarah simply does not want Ishmael to share in Abraham’s legacy. Further, in the second story Hagar is of lesser interest than Ishmael—the fate of Abraham’s son is the main concern.^[21] Moreover, and most crucially, there is no return.^[22]

Many scholars regard the two narratives as representing two developments or versions of one original tale or of a set of earlier tales.^[23] The differences in their narrative structure provide further support that they were once distinct, and were only subsequently merged into the narrative sequence of Genesis.

Hagar and Moses

Virtually all of the extensive hero-centered narratives manifest the fugitive hero pattern, including Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and David, and many less extensive narratives—such as the stories of Gideon, Jephthah, Joash, Jeroboam ben Nebat, and Hadad the Edomite—display several features connected with the pattern. The first Hagar episode belongs to this latter group.

Several scholars have indicated parallels between the story of Hagar’s flight and the stories of Moses’s early career and the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt.^[24] Both Hagar and Israel endure affliction עֳנִי (ʿoni), which motivates their flight. The term ʿoni is not only repeated in the story of Hagar; it is played on by the term for the water source at which she rests in the wilderness—the עַיִן (ʿayin), “fountain.” Hagar, Moses, and Israel all flee into the wilderness, where they encounter the divine.

In my view, these similarities derive not from literary dependence, but from the fugitive hero pattern, which is particularly prominent in the Bible. It serves to structure so many biblical narratives precisely because it creates the mold of and shapes the ancient Hebrew cultural consciousness.^[25]