Hagar
A runaway servant who gave God a name: "the God who sees me."
Old Testament · c. 2000–1800 BC · Genesis, Galatians · Also known as The Egyptian, Mother of Ishmael
About Hagar
Hagar was Sarah’s Egyptian servant, given to Abraham to bear a child. Mistreated, she fled into the wilderness — where the angel of the LORD found her by a spring. She is one of the very few people in Scripture recorded giving God a name: "Thou God seest me." Years later, sent away with her son Ishmael, she heard God’s voice again and saw a well of water.
As an enslaved foreign woman, Hagar had almost no power in her world. Genesis gives her remarkable attention: an angel speaks to her by name, she receives a promise of countless descendants, and she names God. Many readers find her story a powerful picture of God noticing the overlooked.
The story
Someone else’s plan
Sarai, with no children, gave her Egyptian servant Hagar to Abram as a wife. Hagar had no say. When she conceived, the household fractured, and Sarai dealt harshly with her.
Genesis 16:1-6
Found by a spring
She ran. "The angel of the LORD found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness." He called her by name — "Hagar, Sarai’s maid" — and asked, "Whence camest thou? and whither wilt thou go?"
Genesis 16:7-12
The God who sees me
She gave the LORD who spoke to her a name: "Thou God seest me." The well was called Beer-lahai-roi — "the well of him that liveth and seeth me."
Genesis 16:13-14
A well in the wilderness
Years later, sent away with Ishmael and a bottle of water, Hagar sat a bowshot away so she wouldn’t watch her son die, and wept. "God heard the voice of the lad." God opened her eyes, and she saw a well.
Genesis 21:14-21
Key moments
- Given to Abram: A servant with no say. (Genesis 16:3)
- Found by the angel: By a spring, on the way to Shur. (Genesis 16:7)
- Names God: "Thou God seest me." (Genesis 16:13)
- A well appears: God hears the boy. (Genesis 21:17-19)
Questions about Hagar
In meetBible these answers are given in Hagar’s voice. They are written by hand and checked against Scripture.
What does "the God who sees me" mean?
When the angel of the LORD found me by the spring, I said, "Thou God seest me," and asked, "Have I also here looked after him that seeth me?" I had been used, mistreated and had run into the wilderness — and I was seen. The Hebrew is often rendered El Roi.
How did it feel to be sent away?
Scripture records what I did. With the water gone, I put my son under a shrub, sat a bowshot away and said, "Let me not see the death of the child," and I wept. It doesn’t narrate everything I felt — but it records that God heard, and opened my eyes to a well.
What happened to Ishmael?
"God was with the lad; and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer." I found him a wife from Egypt. God had promised Abraham about Ishmael: "Twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation."
Connected people
Read it yourself
Start with Genesis 16; 21.