(Genesis 16:1 - 17:27)
Sarai, Abram's wife, who was barren, owned a maid, an Egyptian named Hagar. She advised Abram that since she was unable to bear any of his children he should try to conceive children with Hagar. Abram decided to take his wife's advice and so at the point when they had lived in Canaan for ten years, Sarai availed upon Abram to take Hagar as a second wife.
Abram consummated his marriage with Hagar. However, when Hagar learned she was pregnant with his child, she began to treat her mistress contemptuously. Sarai complained to Abram about this. "I'm being treated unfairly. I was the one who arranged the marriage between you and my servant and now that she is about to have your child, she despises me. God must decide between you and me."
Abram replied " Look, she is your servant. Do what you want with her!"
However, when Sarai treated her harshly, Hagar ran away. At a well in the desert oasis on the way to Sur, she was found by an emissary of Jehovah. The extraterrestrial questioned her "Hagar, Sarai's maid, where did you come from and where do you think you're going?"
She answered "I am running away from my mistress Sarai."
"Return to your mistress and submit yourself to her authority. ... I will make your descendants multiply so that they will be beyond number. You are pregnant and will soon give birth to a son whom you will call Ishmael (because Jehovah has been made aware of your hardship.) Yes, he will indeed be a wild ass of a man. He will be at odds with his fellows and they will ever be at odds with him. He will live on the outskirts of society."
Hagar spoke to the being that had addressed her, "Your god does see me! And I have truly glimpsed the back of him who sees me and have remained alive." Thus, the well where they met was called Beerlahaioi, meaning the well of he who sees me and lives. (It lies between Kadesh and Bered.)
Hagar bore a son to Abram, who called him Ishmael. At this time Abram was 86 years old.
When Abram was 99 years old, Jehovah visited him and told him "I am the Almighty God, follow me and be a righteous person, and I will make a pledge with you and your descendants, and I will multiply you greatly."
Abram bowed and fell on his face. Jehovah told him "As for me, my pledge is with you. You will be the father of many nations. Because you will be the father of nations, you will no longer be called Abram, but Abraham. Your progeny will be great and produce many nations and dynasties of kings. I establish this contract with you and your descendants for all time, that I will be a god to your and your descendants. I will give to you and your descendants as a possession forever the land of Canaan, in which you now reside as a foreign immigrant. You and every generation after will keep this pledge, and I will be a god to you and to them. The provision of the contract that you and your descendants will observe is this: every male child will be circumcised. This removal of the foreskin of the penis will be a sign of our mutual agreement. Every child eight days old shall be circumcised, this means every child of your descendants, every child born into your household, every purchased slave, including servants who are brought into the house and are not of your race. This everlasting agreement will be manifested literally in the flesh. Anyone not circumcised should be banished, for he has not abided by our contract."
"And as for Sarai, your wife," Jehovah continued, "she shall henceforth no longer be called Sarai, but Sarah. I will bless her so that she will bear you a son. She will be the mother of many peoples and kings will be descended from her."
Abram fell again on his face, but laughed, thinking to himself "Shall a man a hundred years old father a child? Shall Sarah, who is 90, be a mother?" He told Jehovah "Would that Ishmael find favor with you!"
Jehovah responded "Sarah will give birth to your son and you will call him Isaac; it is with him and with his descendants that I will establish an everlasting contract. And as for Ishmael, I have heard your wishes concerning him. I have blessed him as well. I will make him prosper, and he will have many descendants. He will father twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. But my contract will be established with Isaac, whom Sarah will bring into the world at about this time next year."
When Jehovah had finished speaking with Abraham, he departed into the sky.
On that very day, as Jehovah had instructed him, Abraham, his son Ishmael, and all his male servants, including foreign slaves who had been purchased were duly circumcised. Abraham, who was 99 years old, and Ishmael, who was 13, were circumcised on that same day along with the rest of the males in his household.
Notes
1. Jehovah maintains a rather ambiguous moral stance on marriage. Abraham is his man, his favored human, but he is an incestuous bigamist, hardly exemplary, at least by modern standards. Plural marriages seem to have been common at that time, at least among those who could afford to support more than one wife. And marriages between those of close consanguinity seem also to have been favored. While Jehovah seemed to signal in Eden that marriage would be an unbreakable bond between one man and one woman, in practice it seems otherwise.
2. Sarah's scheme of having her husband Abraham father a child with her servant Hagar does not seem to have originated with Jehovah. One wonders why Jehovah, who was so involved in the lives of Abraham's family, did not have some input on this decision. There often is the impression that Jehovah is absent for long periods of time and comes to earth at intervals to check up on his favorite, make some promises, and demand animal sacrifices. This is consistent, of course, not with an omniscient God, but with an extraterrestrial visitor.
3 Jehovah had promised Abraham that he would be not only a father, but a patriarch. Abraham must have taken the promise with a grain of salt, or else lost faith in it over the passing of years when he did not see Jehovah. Why else would he have consented to take a second wife in order to have children? And when Jehovah does come down to see him, he questions his assertion that his wife, definitely passed it, could conceive. One marvels at Abraham actually had the cheek to laugh at his god. Would a man doubt and laugh in the face of God?
4. Abraham takes Hagar as a wife, but does not really treat her as such, for her status as a servant of Sarah seems to take precedence over status as Abraham's wife. When Hagar, now expecting, acts uppity with her mistress and Sarah complains to her husband about it, Abraham does not take charge of the situation as one would expect a man of the house (or tent) to do. He does not say that he will have a talk with Hagar, put her in her place, or punish her. No, he cops out and throws it all into Sarah's lap. Sarah, of course, acts like a shrew and drives pregnant Hagar to run away from home.
5. In her flight Hagar encounters an extraterrestrial who is an emissary (angel) of Jehovah, perhaps a companion of Jehovah, an associate, or employee, who can say? Hagar is amazed that she can see this being and live to tell about it. Perhaps she had heard tell of these beings and is surprised -- and privileged to actually see one -- a normal reaction even for a modern. One can surmise that the meeting was not accidental. It seems likely that Jehovah dispatched this being to send Hagar back to Abraham, either because it was in Abraham's interest or that it suited his, Jehovah's agenda.
6. It is 13 years after the birth of Ishmael that Abraham sees Jehovah again. Jehovah repeats his promise ad nauseum, but this time demands something more than a few charred animal carcasses in return. He demands that Abraham and all his people (male people, that is) get circumcised as a sign of their mutual contract. It seems likely that circumcision was a Hebrew custom established for hygienic reasons or for reasons of maintaining a cultural identity separate from that of uncircumcised neighbors. It was probably in force at some time in the distant past -- from the standpoint of the Biblical authors who saw the need to justify it. This story was concocted to lend the custom divine sanction. That is one possibility. The other is that Jehovah did indeed demand circumcision so that he could recognize the people he had promised to assist. This does not seem likely, however, since circumcision was broadly practiced in the Middle East and Egypt from remote antiquity, (even though the Greeks and the Romans frowned on the practice.)
7. The change of name from Sarai to Sarah, Abram to Abraham -- rather modest as name changes go ( a Hollywood agent might have been more imaginative)-- seems rather unnecessary, but reflects the characters' change of status and destiny. It also exhibits Jehovah's control over them.
8. Jehovah's contract with Abraham and his descendants is a simple quid pro quo. Jehovah will do certain things, make Abraham the father of a great nation, give his descendants the Holy Land to live in forever, and so forth and they are, in turn, to worship him as a god. Jehovah is quite obviously not God, but an extraterrestrial being who wishes to be regarded as a patron god to one people. He may at times claim exalted titles, like God Almighty, the way monarchs have always done, or make claims to being the Creator, but there is nothing to indicate that he is anything but a physical, mortal being, even if he be a humanoid more highly developed than earth men and from a society far more technologically advanced.
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