The Hebrew Bible calls Hagar a "maidservant." The Targum Jonathan, an ancient Aramaic translation of the Torah composed in the land of Israel, calls her a daughter of Pharaoh. That single addition transforms the entire story of Genesis 16.
According to this Aramaic retelling, Pharaoh gave Hagar to Abram as a handmaid after being "struck by the Word from before the Lord"—a reference to the plagues God inflicted on Pharaoh's house when he took Sarah (Genesis 12:17). In other words, Hagar was not just any servant. She was Egyptian royalty, given as reparation for a divine punishment.
When Sarah cannot conceive, she does not simply hand over a slave. She "sets Hagar free" and gives her to Abram as a wife. The Targum emphasizes this legal act of manumission twice—Hagar's status changes before the marriage. But once Hagar conceives, she despises Sarah, and Sarah's complaint to Abram is far more dramatic here than in the Hebrew original. She declares that she left her father's house trusting Abram would do her justice. She freed her handmaid and gave her to him. And now she invokes God as witness, insisting they will have no need of "the progeny of Hagar the daughter of Pharaoh bar Nimrod, who threw thee into the furnace of fire." That last phrase casually drops another tradition—that Pharaoh descended from Nimrod, who tried to kill Abraham by casting him into a fiery furnace.
But the most stunning addition comes when Hagar flees into the desert. After the angel speaks to her, Hagar responds with a theological declaration found nowhere in the plain Hebrew text. She says: "Thou art He who livest and art eternal, who seest but art not seen!" She then names the well where "the Living and Eternal One was revealed" and declares that "the glory of the Shekhina of the Lord" appeared to her in a vision (Genesis 16:13-14).
A foreign woman, alone in the wilderness, fleeing her mistress—and the Targum says she received a direct vision of the Shekhina. The translators did not downplay her experience. They elevated it.
But Sara, the wife of Abram, had not borne to him. But he had a handmaid, a Mizreitha, and her name was Hagar, a daughter of Pharoh, whom he gave to him as a handmaid at the time that he received her, being struck by the Word from before the Lord.
And Sara said to Abram, Behold, now, the Lord hath restrained me from bearing, go to my handmaid and set her free; perhaps I may be builded by her. And Abram hearkened to the word of Sara.
And Sara the wife of Abram took Hagar the Mizreitha handmaid, when Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Kenaan, and set her free, and gave her to Abram her husband to wife.
And he went unto Hagar, and she conceived; and she saw that she had conceived, and the honour of her mistress was despised in her eyes.
And Sara said to Abram, All my affliction is from thee. Being secure that thou wouldst do me justice, I left the land and house of my father, and came up with thee to a foreign land; and forasmuch as I was not able to become a mother, I set free my handmaid, and gave her to lie in thy bosom; and she seeth that she had conceived, and mine honour is despised before her. But now is my affliction manifest before the Lord, who will spread peace between me and thee, and the land shall be replenished from us, nor shall we need the help of the progeny of Hagar the daughter of Pharoh bar Nimrod, who threw thee into the furnace of fire.
And Abram said to Sara, Behold, thy handmaid is under thy authority: do to her what is right in thine eyes. And Sara afflicted her, and she escaped from before her.
And the Angel of the Lord found her at the fountain of waters in the desert; at the fountain of waters which is in the way to Chagra.
And He said, Hagar, handmaid of Sara, whence comest thou, and whither does thou go? And she said, From before Sara my mistress I have escaped.
And the Angel of the Lord said to her, Return to thy mistress, and be subject under her hand.
And the Angel of the Lord said to her, Multiplying I will multiply thy sons, and they shall not be numbered for multitude.
And the Angel of the Lord said to her, Behold, thou art with child, and thou wilt bear a son, and thou shalt call his name Ishmael, because thy affliction is revealed before the Lord.
And he shall be like the wild ass among men: his hands shall take vengeance of his adversaries, and the hands of his adversaries be put forth to do him evil; and in the presence of all his brethren shall he be commingled, (yitharbeb, Arabized,) and shall dwell.
And she gave thanks before the Lord whose Word spake to her, and thus said, Thou art He who livest and art eternal; who seest, but art not seen! for she said, For, behold, here is revealed the glory of the Shekina of the Lord after a vision.
Wherefore she called the well, The Well at which the Living and Eternal One was revealed; and, behold, it is situate between Rekam and Chalutsa.
And Hagar bare Abram a son, and Abram called the name of his son whom Hagar bare, Ishmael.
And Abram was the son of eighty-six years when Hagar bare Ishmael to Abram.
