Genesis 16 - Introduction

Genesis 16. Hagar's Flight from Sarah's Tyranny and the Angel's Promise of Ishmael's Birth Fulfilled. This is shown by stylistic indications to be in the main from J; E's parallel is contained in Genesis 21:8; Genesis 16:1 a, Genesis 16:3; Genesis 16:15 f. belong to P. Genesis 16:9 f. is probably an insertion designed to harmonise the two stories of Hagar's leaving Sarah. Originally, it would seem, our story said nothing about her return, Ishmael being born in the desert; but when J and E were combined, Genesis 16:9 f. had to be inserted. Observe that there is no statement of the return, and that the awkward threefold occurrence of and the angel of the LORD said unto her (Genesis 16:9), without any intervening answer by Hagar, points to some manipulation of the text, all the more that the literary art of the story is so masterly. Still, the two stories fill their present places well, and the narrative runs on quite smoothly. The object of both is to explain the desert life of the Ishmaelites; their ancestress, escaping from intolerable tyranny, betakes herself to the desert, with its glorious, untamed freedom, its independence, and its feuds. The story may well be of Ishmaelite origin. Since Ishmael's name means may God (El) hear rather than may Yahweh hear, it is probable that the name of the deity was originally El-roi (Genesis 16:13, mg.), and that he was the deity of the fountain Beer-lahai-roi (Genesis 16:14).