Meaning of HAGAR

"wandering".
Greek form of the Hebrew name "Hagar", Egyptian slave of Sara. Abraham accepted her as a concubine, according to the Semitic custom of the time, Sarah being sterile (Gen. 16:1), and already being 76 years old.

Hagar was accepted as such at the request of Sarah, who wanted to obtain the title of her mother and make Abraham's succession possible.

When Hagar, proud of being pregnant, mocked Sarah, she turned to Abraham, since she was already his slave; He ended the concubinage and handed the slave over to her owner, who insulted her in such a way that her Hagar fled to the desert; There an angel appeared to her, who ordered her to return to Sarah's house and announced to her that her son from her womb, (Ishmael), would be the father of peoples and a strong man (Gen. 16). (See ISMAEL)

After the birth of Isaac, the rivalry continued between the two women and again Hagar and her son went to the desert, where they were about to die of thirst, when again the angel showed them the fountains of water.

With God's help they survived in the desert and Ishmael grew up there (Gen. 21). The last passage that mentions Hagar in the Old Testament shows us her looking for a wife for her son in Egypt, the country from which she herself had left (Gen. 21: 1-21).

Paul gives us the allegorical application of these events (Gal. 4:21-31), showing the freedom in which the new covenant places us, in grace, compared to the slavery into which those who return to subject themselves to the law fall. (Gal. 5:1).