Hebrew word · H1904

הָגָר

hagar

Hagar

A personal name of uncertain origin. Suggested links include Hebrew ger ('resident alien, sojourner'), Arabic hajara ('to leave, flee', the root of hijra), and a group called the Hagrites (1 Chr 5:10). None is proven.

Appears 12 times in 10 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

A woman living at the time of the Patriarchs, first mentioned at Gen.16.1; married to Abraham (H0085);

mother of: Ishmael (H3458)

Also named: Agar (Ἄγαρ "Hagar" G0028)

§ Hagar = "flight"

Sarah's Egyptian slave girl, Abraham's concubine, Ishmael's mother

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Genesis 16:1

Range of meaning

A personal name of uncertain origin. Suggested links include Hebrew ger ('resident alien, sojourner'), Arabic hajara ('to leave, flee', the root of hijra), and a group called the Hagrites (1 Chr 5:10). None is proven.

Against the English

English simply transliterates the name, so any sound-play is lost.

Used elsewhere in the period

Paul links Hagar with 'Mount Sinai in Arabia' (Gal 4:25), possibly playing on an Arabian place-name. Rabbinic tradition explains the name as a 'reward' (ha-agar) and makes her Pharaoh's daughter (Genesis Rabbah 45:1). That is a later legend, not something the text says.

Where it appears

Genesis · 12

  1. Genesis 16:1 הָגָֽר׃ [was] Hagar

    Now Abram’s wife Sarai had borne him no children, but she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar.

    Here: Her name. To Hebrew ears it sounds like ha-ger, 'the foreigner/resident alien'. Many readers see that sound-play, though it is probably not the name's actual origin. Its real origin is uncertain.

  2. Genesis 16:3 הָגָ֤ר Hagar

    So after he had lived in Canaan for ten years, his wife Sarai took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to Abram to be his wife.

  3. Genesis 16:4 הָגָ֖ר Hagar

    And he slept with Hagar, and she conceived. But when Hagar realized that she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.

  4. Genesis 16:8 הָגָ֞ר O Hagar

    “Hagar, servant of Sarai,” he said, “where have you come from, and where are you going?” “I am running away from my mistress Sarai,” she replied.

  5. Genesis 16:15 הָגָ֛ר הָגָ֖ר Hagar

    And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne.

  6. Genesis 16:16 הָגָ֥ר Hagar

    Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to him.

  7. Genesis 21:9 הָגָ֧ר Hagar

    But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking her son,

    Here: Sarah's Egyptian slave woman, whom Sarah herself gave to Abraham as a surrogate in Genesis 16. Calling the boy by his mother's name ties him to her low status.

  8. Genesis 21:14 הָ֠גָר Hagar

    Early in the morning, Abraham got up, took bread and a skin of water, put them on Hagar’s shoulders, and sent her away with the boy. She left and wandered in the Wilderness of Beersheba.

    Here: Hagar, Sarah's Egyptian slave woman and the mother of Abraham's son Ishmael (Gen 16). She is named here. In vv. 10–13, Sarah and God speak of her only as 'the slave woman'.

  9. Genesis 21:17 הָגָר֙ הָגָ֑ר Hagar, O Hagar

    Then God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, “What is wrong, Hagar? Do not be afraid, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he lies.

    Here: The Egyptian slave woman who bore Abraham's first son. In this chapter Abraham and Sarah never say her name; God's messenger does.

  10. Genesis 25:12 הָגָ֧ר Hagar

    This is the account of Abraham’s son Ishmael, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s maidservant, bore to Abraham.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.