7. THE EXPULSION OF HAGAR AND ISHMAEL.
Ishmael grew up, and became skilful with his bow; he was rough and undisciplined, and he occasionally lapsed into idolatry, but without his father knowing it. But Sarah was aware of his sin, and was grieved thereat.
Ishmael often boasted, “I am the eldest son, and I shall have a double portion of my father’s inheritance.” These words were reported to Sarah, and she hated Ishmael for them in her heart.
One day when Isaac was five years old, but others say fifteen, Ishmael said to him, “Come forth into the field and let us shoot.” Isaac was well pleased. And when they were in the field, Ishmael turned his bow against his brother, but he did it in jest. Sarah saw him from the tent door, and she ran out, and caught away her son Isaac, and she went to Abraham and told him all the evil she knew of Ishmael; how he had gone after idols and had learnt the ways of the Canaanites that were in the land, how he had boasted of his majority, and how he had sought Isaac’s life. And she said, “Give the maid-servant a writing of divorcement, and send her away. Cast out this bond-woman and her son; for the son of this bond-woman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac. Then she will no more vex Isaac. Do thou leave to Isaac all thy possessions. Never shall Ishmael inherit any thing from thee, for he is not my son.”
Abraham was grieved at heart, for he loved Ishmael his son, but nothing that he said could alter Sarah’s determination. She insisted on the expulsion of Hagar and her son, and she stirred up the wrath of Abraham against Ishmael, because he had fallen into idolatry.
Sarah, say the Mussulmans, was so fierce in her jealousy, that she would not be satisfied till she had washed her hands in the blood of Hagar. Then Abraham quickly pierced Hagar’s ears, and drew a ring through them, so that Sarah could fulfil her oath, without endangering the life of Hagar.[320]
It was long before Abraham could be brought to consent to Sarah’s desire, but God appeared to him in a dream and said, “Fear not to obey the voice of Sarah, for she is the wife of thy youth, and was chosen for thee from her mother’s womb. But Hagar is not thy wife; she is but a bond-woman. Sarah also is a prophetess, and sees into things that shall be in the latter days, further than thou. Unto Isaac and those of his seed who believe in the Two Worlds are the promises made; and they alone shall be accounted as thy seed.”[321]
Abraham now did what he was commanded. Next morning he gave Hagar a writing of dismissal, and took twelve loaves of bread and a pitcher of water, and laid them upon Hagar, for Sarah had cast an evil eye upon Ishmael, so that he was ill, and unable to carry any burden. And Abraham attached the pitcher by a cord to the hips of Hagar, that all might know she was a slave, and the pitcher hung down and trailed on the sand. Ishmael was sent away without garments; he went forth naked as he came into the world: thus it may be seen how implacable was the anger of Sarah, because he had boasted of his birthright, and the wrath of Abraham, because he had fallen into idolatry.
But when they went along their way, Abraham looked after them for long, standing in the door of his tent, for his bowels yearned after his son, and he saw the trail in the sand of the water pitcher which Hagar had dragged sadly along, and thereby Abraham knew the direction which they had taken.
Now God forsook not the outcast in her affliction, but filled the pitcher with water as fast as she and her son drank out of it, and the water was always sweet and cold. Thus they penetrated the wilderness, and there they lost their way, and Hagar forgot the God of Abraham, and in her distress turned to the false gods of her father Pharaoh, and besought their protection, for she said, “Where are the promises of the God of Abraham, that of Ishmael would He make a great nation?”