Genesis 16: Call Him Ishmael

Why does Sarai initially urge Abram to cohabit with Hagar, only to regret it later? Why is Hagar’s Egyptian identity emphasized? Why does Sarai blame Abram for following her own instructions? Why does God send Hagar back to Sarai?And why does the divine messenger tell Hagar to name the child Ishmael, yet Abram is the one who ultimately names him? To begin unraveling this complex narrative, we must look back to Genesis 11. Abram travels to Egypt and, fearing for his life, asks Sarai to pose as his sister. Sarai does not protest and goes along with the plan. As a result, she is taken into Pharaoh’s palace—likely as a concubine. During this time, Abram acquires significant wealth, and Pharaoh allows him to leave Egypt with his newfound bounty. It is likely that Hagar enters the story here, perhaps as a gift to Sarai from Pharaoh.Meanwhile, God continues to promise Abram that his descendants will inherit the land. But Abram remains childless. Sarai, in a moment of selflessness and desperation, offers Hagar as a surrogate to bear children on her behalf. The plan seems reasonable—later in Genesis, both Leah and Rachel will do the same. Clearly, this was a socially accepted practice. But acceptance does not mean ease. Sarai quickly regrets her decision. Hagar becomes a living reminder of the trauma Sarai endured in Egypt, a trauma rooted in Abram’s earlier choices. Sarai’s anger toward Abram stems from his apparent inability to recognize this emotional burden.This tension is especially poignant given the previous chapter, where Abram expresses frustration to God over the possibility that his servant Eliezer might inherit the divine promises. Sarai’s pain is compounded by the fear that she is being replaced—not just by Hagar, but in the spiritual legacy she hoped to share with Abram.God’s command for Hagar to return to Sarai is not merely about obedience. It’s about restoring Sarai’s status as the matriarch of God’s chosen people. Had Hagar remained apart, it might have signaled that Sarai had lost her place in the covenant—not just in Abram’s eyes, but in her own.As for the naming of Ishmael, the commentaries offer different explanations.• Rashi suggests that God also appeared to Abram and relayed the events of Hagar’s encounter, including the instruction to name the child Ishmael.• Sforno sees it as a coincidence—Abram independently chose the name for similar reasons.• Radak offers a simpler view: Hagar told Abram what happened, and he named the child accordingly.Interestingly, the text does not explicitly describe this exchange. The absence of detail may support Radak’s interpretation: the silence itself implies a straightforward transmission of the message.There is one final question- what do all of these questions have to do with each other? To answer that, we can look at the name Yismael itself. The name Yishmael (יִשְׁמָעֵאל) is grammatically in future tense in Hebrew.It comes from the root שׁ.מ.ע (sh.m.a) meaning "to hear," and the prefix י (yud) typically denotes third-person masculine singular future tense in biblical Hebrew. This future tense is significant in the context of Genesis 16:11:וַיֹּאמֶר לָהּ מַלְאַךְ ה: הִנָּךְ הָרָה וְיֹלֶדֶת בֵּן, וְקָרָאת שְׁמוֹ יִשְׁמָעֵאל, כִּי שָׁמַע ה אֶל־עָנְיֵךְ“And the angel of the Lord said to her, ‘Behold, you are pregnant and shall bear a son; and you shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has heard your affliction.’” The assumption here is that this message is Hagar being saved by God. Perhaps, though, the naming is not for Hagar but for Sarai. The hint here is the future tense of the name. Yes this child is born through her maidservant, but God remembers Sarai as well. He will hear her pain and suffering and will give her a son in the future as well. That is why Avram names him that it is a message to his wife not to be afraid of this child born to her Egyptian servant. Sarai will have her progeny. God will hear her.