Genesis 16:1-6

Hagar and her Flight into the Desert. (J, P.)

1. handmaid or "maidservant," as in Genesis 12:16. The wife generally had a female slave, who was her own property, and not under the husband's control: see Genesis 29:24; Genesis 29:29; Genesis 30:3-7; Genesis 30:9; Genesis 30:12.

an Egyptian It is natural to connect Hagar's Egyptian origin with the sojourn in Egypt mentioned in chap. 12, or with the journeys in the Negeb (Genesis 12:9; Genesis 13:1).

The theory that the "Egypt" (Miṣraim) of which Hagar was a native was the land of a N. Arabian tribe (Muṣri) has been suggested by Winckler on account of the mention of Muṣriin N. Arabia in the cuneiform inscriptions. His theory supposes that the Muṣriof N. Arabia was at an early time confounded by the Israelites with the more famous, but similarly sounding, Miṣri, "an inhabitant of Egypt." But, in view of the continual intercourse between Palestine and Egypt, as shewn by the Tel-el-Amarna tablets, the theory is improbable, and uncalled for. Egypt, at an early period, embraced the Sinaitic peninsula.

Hagar The name "Hagar" is associated with that of wandering Arab tribes, called the Hagrites, 1 Chronicles 5:10; 1Ch 5:19-20; 1 Chronicles 27:31, with which should be compared the Hagarenes of Psalms 83:6, "the tents of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; Moab, and the Hagarenes."

Whether the story of Hagar, in this chapter, in any way bears upon the meaning of her name, is more than we can say for certain. But, in Arabic, hagara= "to flee," and the well-known word hegira, the epoch of Mohammed, is his "flight" from Mecca.