The matter distressed Abraham greatly, for it concerned his son…And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread, and a skin of water, and gave them to Hagar. He placed them over her shoulder, together with the child, and sent her away. (Genesis 21:14)

The composition of Rembrandt’s etching of the banishment of Hagar and Ishmael reflects the dynamic between the participants involved. The imposing figure of Abraham has been given center stage. Abraham’s body is interposed between the two families who are to be fatefully separated. Sarah will remain in the house of Abraham with her son Isaac (barely visible, sheltering in the doorway). Their gloating facial expressions are a telling indicator that Sarah has succeeded.

Abraham’s body language exhibits his ambivalence. The weight of his body is balanced on his left foot, towards Hagar and his first-born son Ishmael. Yet his right foot draws him back into the house. His left hand reaches out, perhaps to bless the departing woman and child, but unable to do more than grasp at air since they have already begun their journey. Rembrandt demonstrably portrays Hagar’s pain. Her weeping is made audible through the blowing of her nose. He also evokes the pity of the viewer by transforming Ishmael – who in the biblical narrative is at least 13 years old – into a little boy.

Note how Rembrandt has slung a quiver of arrows over the boy’s back. This seemingly refers to Genesis 21:20, which describes Ishmael as growing up to become a skillful bowman in the wilderness. It may be that Rembrandt has, through this detail, subtly explained the motivation behind the banishment of Ishmael, hinting at his violent tendencies and his destiny to forever be at odds with his kinsmen.

The biblical account of the banishment of Hagar and Ishmael is morally perplexing. At first blush it would seem that Sarah’s merciless demand to turn out Hagar and Ishmael is grounded in her own complex web of feelings toward the maidservant and her son. Sarah has waited for 90 years to bear Abraham his heir. No one will now impinge on his status, or on hers. In theory, Abraham could have simply reassured Sarah that both sons would assume their rightful positions, as God does in the continuation of the story. Why are such harsh measures proposed by Sarah, confirmed by God, and carried out by the patriarch? The question can be answered on several levels.

The Ancient Near Eastern context of this story suggests that conflict over inheritance rights precipitated Sarah’s request that Hagar and Ishmael be sent away. In ancient Mesopotamian law codes (Abraham, after all, did come from the Mesopotamian city of Ur), we learn that freeing a maidservant disqualifies a son she may have borne to the master of the house from inheriting his estate.

Take the following example from the Lipit Ishtar law code, which dates from approximately 1950 B.C.E.:

If a man married a wife (and) she bore him children and those children are living, and a slave also bore children for her master (but) the father granted freedom to the slave and her children, the children of the slave shall not divide the estate with the children of their (former) master.

So when Sarah said: ‘Cast out that slave-woman and her son, for the son of that slave shall not share in the inheritance with my son Isaac’ (Genesis 21:10), she was simply asking Abraham to carry out a legal procedure which would cause Ishmael to forfeit his right to inheritance.

Abraham, however, was crestfallen: ‘The matter distressed Abraham greatly, for it concerned his son’ (Genesis 21:11). This for him was no mere legal formality!

But Abraham may not only have been upset about Ishmael being banished. He might have been concerned about his direction in life. Scripture hints at tendencies displayed by the lad that might have been another reason Sarah asked to send him away.

Sarah saw the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham playing. (Genesis 21:9)

The term ‘playing’ is enigmatic. Something in the actions of the young Ishmael clued Sarah into impending trouble. Her newfound maternal instinct compelled her to protect Isaac from possible negative influences. It was this, which moved her to make her painful suggestion of expelling Hagar and Ishmael.

Rashi, the great Northern French medieval biblical commentator, probes Abraham’s conscience and explains that ‘the matter’ which ‘distressed Abraham greatly’ was that he heard that he had taken to degenerate ways. This suggestion is based on the midrashic exposition of the word ‘playing’. The Rabbis take the matter to the extreme, proposing that Ishmael’s sinister play indicated that he had homicidal, sexually objectionable, and idolatrous tendencies even at a young age. By suggesting cardinal infractions on the part of the boy, they thereby exonerate Abraham for agreeing to his banishment, which otherwise might be viewed as morally reprehensible.

Professor Nehama Leibowitz points out that the pathos of the biblical narrative is reflected in the choice of terminology masterfully employed by the Torah to refer to Ishmael. Sarah calls Hagar and Ishmael ‘the maidservant and her son’. They have no names, simply a marker of lowly status. In relation to Abraham, Ishmael is called ‘his son’. He was his first born and beloved son. The Almighty initially uses the neutral term ‘the lad’ in reference to Ishmael, but when agreeing with  Sarah’s demand, the Lord Himself calls Ishmael ‘the son of the maid servant’. In relation to Hagar, the text calls Ishmael ‘the boy’, thereby stressing her maternal relationship.

These epithets ingeniously highlight the subjective feelings of the characters involved. Though in the end the course of events will be determined by the needs of the nascent nation that will one day be Israel, the Torah takes pains to show awareness of the emotions of the individuals whose lives will be affected by this process.

The story of the expulsion ends with Hagar and Ishmael returning to Egypt, their country of origin. There is no mention of reconciliation between Abraham and Ishmael at this juncture, but there is a telltale verse, which leaves us wondering:

And Abraham breathed his last, dying at a good ripe age, old and contented; and he was gathered to his kin. His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite, facing Mamre, the field that Abraham had bought from the Hittites… (Genesis 25: 8-9)

The fact that Ishmael was present with his half-brother Isaac at their father’s burial would seem to indicate that the ties between the families were not completely severed.

Taking its cue from this verse, a remarkable midrashic text introduces an additional chapter in the relationship of Abraham with his son Ishmael, one in which Abraham set out in search of the son he had banished.

And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran. Ishmael sent for a wife from among the daughters of Moab and Ayeshah was her name. After three years Abraham went to see Ishmael his son, having sworn to Sarah that he would not descend from the camel in the place where Ishmael dwelt. He arrived there at midday and found there the wife of Ishmael. He said to her: ‘Where is Ishmael?’ She said to him: ‘He has gone with his mother to fetch the fruit of the palms from the wilderness.’ He said to her: ‘Give me a little bread and a little water, for my soul is faint after the journey in the desert.’ She said to him: ‘I have neither bread nor water.’ He said to her: ‘When Ishmael comes home tell him this story, and say to him: A certain old man came from the land of Canaan to see thee, and he said, Exchange the threshold of thy house, for it is not good for thee.’ When Ishmael came home his wife told him the story. A son of a wise man is like half a wise man. Ishmael understood. His mother sent and took for him a wife from her father’s house, and her name was Fatimah.

Again after three years Abraham went to see his son Ishmael, having sworn to Sarah as on the first occasion that he would not descend from the camel in the place where Ishmael dwelt. He came there at midday, and found there Ishmael’s wife. He said to her: ‘Where is Ishmael?’ She replied to him: ‘He has gone with his mother to feed the camels in the desert.’ He said to her: ‘Give me a little bread and water, for my soul is faint after the journey of the desert.’ She fetched it and gave it to him. Abraham arose and prayed before the Holy One, blessed be He, for his son, and thereupon Ishmael’s house was filled with all good things of the various blessings. When Ishmael came home his wife told him what had happened, and Ishmael knew that his father’s love was still extended to him. (Pirke d’Rabbi Eliezer 29)

The midrash affords the story closure, embellishing it with a moving rapprochement between Abraham and his son Ishmael.

I. Abraham Sends Hagar and Ishmael Away

1. The Lipit Ishtar law code dates from the Early Post Sumerian period. It antedates the Code of Hammurabi by more than a century and a half. The section, which has been preserved, contains thirty-eight laws pertaining to real estate, boats, orchards, oxen, slaves, taxes, inheritance and marriage. The code can be found in   James B. Pritchard,   Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament (Princeton, 1969), p.160

2. Rashi is the acronym for   Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac. He lived in Northern France and Ashkenaz from 1040-1105. He is considered the leading commentator on the Bible and Talmud of all times.

3. Prof. Nehama Leibowitz, elaborates on how this technique is used in biblical literature in her essay, “Joseph and His Brothers: How to Read a Chapter of Tanakh”, in Torah Insights (Jerusalem, 1995), p.173.

4. Pirke d’Rabbi Eliezer is an eighth century midrashic work. It contains fifty-four chapters of commentary on Genesis, part of Exodus and several verses from Numbers. It received the name Pirke d’Rabbi Eliezer since it is ascribed to Rabbi Eliezer b.Hyrcanus.