Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Hagar conceives by Abram; hence she grows proud, is afflicted, and flees into the desert; there, in verse 7, the angel consoles her and commands her to return, and at the same time promises and describes to her the son Ishmael: whom upon returning, in verse 15, Hagar bears.
Vulgate Text: Genesis 16:1-16
1. Now Sarai, the wife of Abram, had not borne children; but having an Egyptian handmaid named Hagar, 2. she said to her husband: Behold, the Lord has closed me, that I should not bear; go in to my handmaid, that perhaps at least from her I may receive children. And when he consented to her request, 3. she took Hagar the Egyptian, her handmaid, after they had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband as a wife. 4. And he went in to her. But she, seeing that she had conceived, despised her mistress. 5. And Sarai said to Abram: You deal unjustly with me. I gave my handmaid into your bosom, and she, seeing that she has conceived, holds me in contempt. May the Lord judge between me and you. 6. And Abram answered her: Behold, your handmaid is in your hand; do with her as you please. So when Sarai afflicted her, she took flight. 7. And when the Angel of the Lord found her beside a spring of water in the wilderness, which is on the road to Sur in the desert, 8. He said to her: Hagar, handmaid of Sarai, where do you come from? and where are you going? She answered: I flee from the face of Sarai my mistress. 9. And the Angel of the Lord said to her: Return to your mistress, and humble yourself under her hand. 10. And again: I will multiply, He said, I will multiply your seed, and it shall not be numbered for multitude. 11. And further: Behold, He said, you have conceived, and you shall bear a son; and you shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has heard your affliction. 12. He shall be a wild man: his hand against all, and the hands of all against him; and he shall pitch his tents over against all his brethren. 13. And she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her: You are the God who has seen me. For she said: Surely here I have seen the back of Him who sees me. 14. Therefore she called that well, the Well of the Living One who sees me. It is between Kadesh and Barad. 15. And Hagar bore Abram a son, who called his name Ishmael. 16. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.
Verse 2: The Lord Has Closed Me -- Go In to My Maidservant
'The Lord has closed me.' Note the Hebraism: to open the womb is to make fruitful, to give offspring; conversely, to close the womb, or a woman, is to make her barren, to deprive her of conception and offspring.
'Go in to my handmaid' -- as a husband to your wife, whom by this going in, that is, by marital union, you join to yourself in marriage.
Calvin here censures Sarah as a procuress and Abram as an adulterer with his handmaid Hagar. But both are excused by St. Chrysostom, Augustine, Ambrose, Josephus, Jerome, and others. For Abram did not take Hagar as a concubine, but married her here as a secondary wife; for polygamy was then permitted. And it was not lust but hope and the desire for offspring and posterity that moved both Sarah and Abram. Beautifully St. Augustine says in Book XVI of The City of God, chapter 25, about Abram: 'O the man, manfully making use of women -- his wife temperately, his handmaid obediently, none intemperately!'
Josephus adds that Sarah, admonished by God, urged upon Abraham the marriage with Hagar. St. Augustine hints at the same in Book X Against Faustus, chapter 32.
Where note first, the faith and piety of Sarah, that, forgetful of her own dignity, she acts so that God's promise concerning the offspring and lineage of Abraham might be fulfilled. Second, her prudence, that she gives her husband a wife who is not a stranger but a handmaid, so that she might be able to claim as her own the children born from her. Third, her humility, that she voluntarily yields her right and prefers the handmaid to herself: for which reason she merited to be exalted by God through the conception of Isaac. Fourth, her love for her husband, so that she might provide for his lineage. Fifth, her chastity, that when she sees she cannot conceive, she no longer desires her husband. In only one thing was Sarah less perfect than Abraham: that she was too hasty in obtaining offspring, as women are wont to do. For Abraham and every truly faithful person waits, even if the Lord delays. Wherefore she was punished in this very matter, namely when Hagar, having given birth, despised her mistress.
Let parents who seek children with excessive desire take note of this: for they will be punished through them, when their children turn out such that they create nothing but troubles and miseries for their parents, so that they sometimes wish they had never been born.
'And when he yielded to her entreaty.' Note here the chastity of Abraham, who could not be driven to marriage with Hagar except by the entreaties of Sarah, and even then only reluctantly.
Verse 3: Hagar the Egyptian
St. Chrysostom thinks that Hagar was given as a gift by Pharaoh to Abraham when he was sojourning in Egypt, chapter 12, verse 16. Philo adds that she was converted to the true faith and the worship of the true God by Abraham and Sarah, both by their word and by the example of their holy life (the Hebrews add, also by the miracle by which God struck Pharaoh's court on account of the abduction of Sarah, chapter 12, verse 16): furthermore, that Abram abstained from her after he saw that she had conceived.
'Than they had dwelt' -- that is, from when they had begun to dwell.
Verse 5: You Act Unjustly Against Me -- Let the Lord Judge
'You act unjustly against me.' In Hebrew: my injury (which is inflicted on me by my maidservant) is upon you, that is, it is to be imputed to you: because you do not chastise Hagar my maidservant, who is growing insolent against me, but tolerate her. So says St. Chrysostom.
'Let the Lord judge between me and you.' Concerning my case and yours, whether indeed it is fair that I suffer this injury, and that you overlook it. See here how unreliable and deceptive are the counsels of men, so that we may learn to trust not in ourselves, but in God. First, Sarah hoped for the promised seed from Hagar, but she is deceived. Second, she thought that through marriage she would bind Hagar more closely to herself; but soon she found her insolent. So maidservants and servants, if they are elevated, rise up against their masters. Proverbs 29:21: 'He who delicately nurtures his servant from childhood, will afterward find him rebellious'; and chapter 30, verse 21: 'By three things the earth is disturbed, and a fourth it cannot bear: by a servant when he reigns; by a fool when he is filled with food; by an odious woman when she is taken in marriage; and by a maidservant when she becomes heir to her mistress.' Third, through this pride of the mother, the fierceness of the son to be born was foreshadowed, whom Sarah experienced as the persecutor of her son Isaac. See how badly hasty and overly human plans turn out. So Hezekiah, by displaying his treasures, was courting the friendship of the Babylonians; but through these very things he stirred them up to invade his kingdom. Thus every day we especially find as adversaries those whom we have too greatly commended or promoted.
Verse 6: Your Maidservant Is in Your Hand
'Behold, he said, your maidservant is in your hand' -- as if to say: Do not impute to me another's fault, indeed your own fault. If it were a male servant, I would restrain him; deal with your maidservant as she deserves: it is your jurisdiction, not mine. 'I know what honor I owe you: There is only one thing I strive for, that you be free from sorrow and disturbance, and be in all honor,' says St. Chrysostom, Homily 38. Who also adds a moral teaching: 'This is true companionship, this is the husband's duty, when he does not attend too carefully to his wife's words, but grants some pardon to the weakness of her sex, striving for this one thing alone, that sadness be removed from their midst, and peace and harmony be bound more tightly.' And further: 'That she too may turn to her husband, and the husband may flee from external and public business and troubles to her as to a port, and find every kind of consolation. For she was given as a helper,' etc.
You will object: Polygamy is against the law of nature, therefore no one, not even God, can dispense from it or grant it. Durandus in book IV, distinction 33, and Abulensis on Matthew chapter 19, deny the antecedent. For they hold that polygamy was forbidden only by the positive law of Christ in the Gospel, Matthew 19:6. But all others teach that polygamy is unlawful not only by positive law but also by natural law. Hence St. Ambrose, in Book I On Abraham, chapter 4, calls it adultery, but permitted in that age on account of its mystery.
I respond therefore by denying the consequence: for God can dispense from the law of nature, especially if it is secondary, as is the law that forbids polygamy. Polygamy is in itself forbidden, unless it is permitted by a higher power, namely the divine; for then it is lawful; for it is only evil and forbidden in itself because it somewhat conflicts with the peace of the family and the good education of children, to which parents are bound: but God can free parents from this obligation and compensate it by another means and a greater good (for example, the propagation of the true faith). Therefore God, by dispensing from the law of nature, for instance monogamy, removes and changes not so much the law as the object and matter of the law. Thus when He commanded Hosea to take a harlot, He made the harlot into Hosea's wife. Thus when He commanded the Hebrews to despoil the Egyptians, He gave the Egyptians' goods to the Hebrews, and consequently neither was Hosea's act fornication, nor was the Hebrews' act theft: because God had given Hosea a right over the body of her who had previously been a harlot; and to the Hebrews He had given a right over the goods of the Egyptians. Just as God therefore gave the Hebrews the goods of the Egyptians, so He pardoned and remitted to Abraham and others of that age the obligation to secure as great a peace of the family, and as convenient an education of children, as nature urges upon parents and as usually exists in monogamy; and consequently God permitted them polygamy, in which the education of children is somewhat less convenient, and the peace of the family somewhat less.
For God can not only neglect but also disturb and scatter, and indeed destroy and kill both the offspring and the entire family; and this both through other people, even parents, and through Himself. For He Himself is the supreme lord of all and of nature itself. Add this: Polygamy, if the primary wife requests it, as Sarah did here, and for the preservation and propagation of the nation and the true faith and religion, with God's approval, is not against the law of nature, as the Doctors universally teach along with St. Thomas.
'So when Sarai afflicted her' -- when Sarah punished and restrained her insolence.
Verse 7: The Angel of the Lord
God sent this angel to Hagar, moved by the prayers of Hagar, says Josephus; or rather, on account of the merits of and out of favor for Abraham His friend, so as to provide for his offspring, namely Ishmael.
'A spring' -- that is, a well, as is clear from verse 14. For Scripture calls a well a spring, because in wells there is a spring and outflow of waters.
'Which is.' That is, the spring in that part of the desert through which one travels from Canaan through Shur to Egypt: for Hagar, fleeing, was heading for Egypt, since it was her homeland. The Syrians call this desert Agara, from Hagar: whence came the Hagarenes, who are also called Ishmaelites, from Ishmael, and Saracens -- not from Sarah the wife of Abraham, as the common people think based on St. Jerome: for then they would have to be called Sarani; but from Saraca, a city of Arabia, says Stephanus: so too Covarruvias, vol. 2, Various Resolutions, book 4, chapter 9.
Verse 8: Hagar, Where Do You Come From?
'Hagar, maidservant of Sarai, where do you come from?' The angel asks, not because he does not know, but in order to elicit a confession of sin, as if to say: How have you cast yourself from so good and happy a household as Abraham's into this wandering and wretched exile? So God said to Adam: 'Adam, where are you?' and to Cain: 'What have you done?'
Verse 9: Humble Yourself Under Her Hand
'Humble yourself under her hand' -- submit yourself to her authority and correction. This is the first vision of an angel in Scripture. Note here that the work and office of angels is to bring people back, like servants, both to God and to their masters. Again, this sound counsel of the angel, 'Humble yourself under her hand,' should be given to disobedient and runaway maidservants and servants.
Tropologically, Hagar signifies the sinful and penitent soul, Sarah the Church, Abram Christ: the soul is reconciled to Christ through humble confession. See Ferus here.
Verse 10: Multiplying I Will Multiply
'Multiplying I will multiply.' I will greatly multiply your descendants through Ishmael, because he is a son of Abraham. Thus we see that even now the Ishmaelites, or Saracens, have spread through and occupied not only Arabia, Egypt, Mauretania, Numidia, Turkey, Persia, Armenia, but also the Indies and almost the entire East in immense numbers.
Verse 11: You Shall Call His Name Ishmael
'You shall call his name Ishmael, because God has heard your affliction.' Ishmael therefore means the same as "the hearing of God," or literally, "God has heard." Ishmael therefore is the same as shama el, that is, "God has heard," namely your prayer, which you poured out when you were afflicted.
Abulensis and Pererius rightly observe that five, or rather six, illustrious men had their names foretold by God before their birth. The first is Ishmael here. The second is Isaac, Genesis 17:19. The third is Solomon, 1 Chronicles 22:9. The fourth is Josiah, 1 Kings 13:2. The fifth is John the Baptist, Luke 1:60. The sixth is Jesus Christ, Matthew 1:21.
'Your affliction.' The Rabbis, whom Abulensis follows, relate that Hagar, partly as punishment for having despised her mistress, and partly from the hardship of the journey, had lost the child in her womb, and that this is the affliction of Hagar understood here; but because she acquiesced to the angel urging her return and humiliation under her mistress, for this reason God revived the child that had died in the womb, and this is what the angel means by: 'Behold, you have conceived,' or, as they translate it, "you will conceive," as if to say: You recently conceived from Abram, but now you have conceived again from God, who has revived your dead child; and therefore you shall call the name of the offspring Ishmael, because God has heard the prayers of your affliction, by reviving the child. But these are inventions of the Jews; therefore the affliction here means hunger, thirst, hardships, anxieties, and other miseries of flight and travel.
Verse 12: He Shall Be a Wild Man
'He shall be a wild man.' In Hebrew, he shall be pere, that is, a wild donkey, as the Chaldean translates, meaning: like a wild donkey, fierce, hard, untamable, solitary, wandering with no fixed abode, and impatient of the yoke. For as Job says, chapter 11, verse 12: 'A vain man is puffed up with pride, and thinks himself born free like a wild donkey's colt.'
Note: The angel predicts these things not only about Ishmael, but about his descendants: such as we even today see and experience them. See Ammianus Marcellinus, book 14, On the Customs of the Saracens.
'His hand against all, and the hand of all against him' -- as if to say: The descendants of Ishmael will attack everyone, and will be attacked by everyone. For around the desert of Paran, in which Ishmael dwelt, many nations lived, which were accustomed to fight against Ishmael and his descendants.
'And he shall pitch his tents over against all his brethren' -- as if to say: Ishmael will be bold and fearless; for he will not be part of one nation, but will constitute one nation separately by himself (and this out of favor for Abraham, whose son he is), which will dare to dwell securely opposite his brethren and any other peoples.
Note: The brothers of Ishmael were Isaac and the other sons of Abraham born of Keturah; opposite these Ishmael dwelt in the desert of Paran, Genesis chapter 21.
'He shall pitch his tents.' So even now many Nomads and other Ishmaelites dwell not in houses, but in pavilions. These are the tents of Kedar, about which see Song of Songs chapter 1, verse 5.
Verse 13: You Are the God Who Has Seen Me
'She called the name of the Lord.' She invoked the name of the Lord, saying what follows.
'You are the God who has seen me.' Note: Hagar calls the angel God, because he represented the person of God, just as a viceroy represents the king. You therefore, O God, that is, O angel in God's place, have seen, that is, have looked upon me and my affliction, and have exercised care and providence for me in this terrible desert. For here Hagar gives thanks to God for His paternal visitation, providence, and protection toward her. So say Cajetan, Lipomanus, and others.
Second, Vatablus translates: You are the God of vision, because, that is, You see all things, and therefore even me, wandering and a fugitive in the desert, where no one else sees or cares for me. Hence the Chaldean translates: You are the God who sees all things.
'I saw the back of the one who sees me' -- namely of God, or rather of the angel representing God, as if to say: With these eyes I beheld God, or rather the angel, turned away from me from behind, when he was speaking to me.
Note: God, or rather the angel representing God, showed Hagar -- just as He showed Moses in Exodus 33:23 -- not His face, but only His back in the body He had assumed: and this to signify that the face, that is, the clear knowledge and vision of God -- not only of the divine essence, but also of the glory of the body assumed by God, which to some extent corresponds to the majesty of God and, as is customary, shines most brightly in the face -- cannot be grasped by the mortal eye.
Again, because Hagar here knew and loved God imperfectly, inasmuch as she was fleeing from obedience to her mistress and therefore also fleeing from God; and so, not yet having returned, not yet fully converted, she turned her back, as it were, on God: hence in return God showed her not His face but His back. Therefore God enacted outwardly before the bodily eyes of Hagar what was happening within her in the eyes of her heart. For the same reason, as St. Gregory attests in Homily 23 on the Gospels, Christ, though glorified, appeared as a stranger to the two disciples at Emmaus, and as a gardener to Magdalene.
Allegorically, Hagar is the Synagogue of the Jews, Sarah is the Church of the Christians, by which the former is expelled for her insolence. See Rupertus, book 5, chapter 25.
Otherwise, indeed contrarily, namely negatively, Vatablus and Cajetan translate and explain these words in this way, as if to say: Did I see him departing, the one who saw me, or appeared to me? No, I did not see him. Whence I knew him to be an angel of the Lord; for as long as he was speaking with me, I saw him: but then he disappeared so that I could not see him; whereas I could have seen him departing if he had been a man. Therefore I truly knew that the Lord had sent His angel to me to console me. As if Hagar here concludes from the sudden disappearance that he was an angel of the Lord. But the Septuagint, the Chaldean, our Vulgate, and others generally translate these words not negatively but affirmatively.
Verse 14: The Well of the Living and Seeing One
'She called' -- Hagar herself, or whoever gave this name to the spring or well.
Verse 15: And Hagar Bore a Son
'And she bore' -- after she followed the angel's counsel, returned home, and was reconciled to Abraham and Sarah by humbling herself.