As Isaac grew, tensions flared between the two half-brothers over inheritance rights. Ishmael, the elder, believed he deserved a double portion, while Isaac should receive only one. According to Ginzberg's retelling in Legends of the Jews, Ishmael, skilled with a bow and arrow, would aim his missiles at Isaac, claiming it was just a jest. But Sarah saw through the "jesting."
Sarah, deeply concerned about the future, insisted that Abraham give everything to Isaac, ensuring no disputes would arise after his death. "Ishmael," she declared, "is not worthy of being heir with my son." And, as if that weren't enough, she demanded Abraham send Hagar and Ishmael away, severing all ties between them and Isaac, both in this world and the world to come.
Of all the trials Abraham faced, this was the most agonizing. The thought of separating from his son tore at his heart. But that very night, God appeared to him. "Abraham," He said, "knowest thou not that Sarah was appointed to be thy wife from her mother's womb? She is thy companion and the wife of thy youth… What Sarah spoke unto thee was naught but truth." (Legends of the Jews)
The next morning, Abraham rose early, gave Hagar a get, a bill of divorcement, and sent her and Ishmael away. To publicly mark her status, he bound a rope around her waist, signifying she was a bondwoman.
As they journeyed, Sarah's "evil eye," as the text puts it, made Ishmael sick with a fever. Hagar, carrying him, depleted the water Abraham had provided. Desperate, not wanting to witness her son's death, she cast him under a willow bush. Interestingly, the Legends of the Jews specifies this was the very same spot where angels had once appeared to Hagar, promising her a son.
In her anguish, she cried out to God, "Yesterday Thou didst say to me, I will greatly multiply thy seed… and to-day my son dies of thirst!" But Ishmael, too, cried out to God. And it was his prayer, coupled with the merits of Abraham, that brought them salvation.
However, even as Ishmael prayed, the angels argued against him before God. "Wilt Thou cause a well of water to spring up for him whose descendants will let Thy children of Israel perish with thirst?" they asked. God, in his infinite wisdom, responded, "What is Ishmael at this moment—righteous or wicked?" When the angels conceded that he was righteous, God declared, "I treat man according to his deserts at each moment." (Legends of the Jews)
According to the Legends of the Jews, Ishmael prayed, "O Lord of the world! If it be Thy will that I shall perish, then let me die in some other way, not by thirst, for the tortures of thirst are great beyond all others." (Legends of the Jews)
But Hagar, perhaps lacking the same faith, turned to the idols of her youth. It was Ishmael's prayer that was answered. God commanded Miriam's well, a miraculous well created in the twilight of the sixth day of creation, to spring forth and provide water.
Yet, even after this miracle, Hagar's faith remained weak. She refilled the bottle, fearing the water would run out again. This reminds me of the saying, "Throw the stick into the air as thou wilt, it will always land on its point." Hagar, having come from Egypt, returned there with her son, seeking a wife for him.
It’s a poignant tale of faith, doubt, and the enduring bond between a mother and her son. It makes you wonder, doesn't it? How much does our past shape our future, and what role does faith play in overcoming life's most challenging trials?
When Isaac grew up, quarrels broke out between him and Ishmael, on account of the rights of the first-born. Ishmael insisted he should receive a double portion of the inheritance after the death of Abraham, and Isaac should receive only one portion. Ishmael, who had been accustomed from his youth to use the bow and arrow, was in the habit of aiming his missiles in the direction of Isaac, saying at the same time that he was but jesting. Sarah, however, insisted that Abraham make over to Isaac all he owned, that no disputes might arise after his death, "for," she said, "Ishmael is not worthy of being heir with my son, nor with a man like Isaac, and certainly not with my son Isaac." Furthermore, Sarah insisted that Abraham divorce himself from Hagar, the mother of Ishmael, and send away the woman and her son, so that there be naught in common between them and her own son, either in this world or in the future world. Of all the trials Abraham had to undergo, none was so hard to bear as this, for it grieved him sorely to separate himself from his son. God appeared to him in the following night, and said to him: "Abraham, knowest thou not that Sarah was appointed to be thy wife from her mother's womb? She is thy companion and the wife of thy youth, and I named not Hagar as thy wife, nor Sarah as thy bondwoman. What Sarah spoke unto thee was naught but truth, and let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman." The next morning Abraham rose up early, gave Hagar her bill of divorcement, and sent her away with her son, first binding a rope about her loins that all might see she was a bondwoman. The evil glance cast upon her stepson by Sarah made him sick and feverish, so that Hagar had to carry him, grown-up as he was. In his fever he drank often of the water in the bottle given her by Abraham as she left his house, and the water was quickly spent. That she might not look upon the death of her child, Hagar cast Ishmael under the willow shrubs growing on the selfsame spot whereon the angels had once spoken with her and made known to her that she would bear a son. In the bitterness of her heart, she spoke to God, and said, "Yesterday Thou didst say to me, I will greatly multiply thy seed, that it shall not be numbered for multitude, and to-day my son dies of thirst." Ishmael himself cried unto God, and his prayer and the merits of Abraham brought them help in their need, though the angels appeared against Ishmael before God. They said, "Wilt Thou cause a well of water to spring up for him whose descendants will let Thy children of Israel perish with thirst?" But God replied, and said, "What is Ishmael at this moment—righteous or wicked?" and when the angels called him righteous, God continued, "I treat man according to his deserts at each moment." At that moment Ishmael was pious indeed, for he was praying to God in the following words: "O Lord of the world! If it be Thy will that I shall perish, then let me die in some other way, not by thirst, for the tortures of thirst are great beyond all others." Hagar, instead of praying to God, addressed her supplications to the idols of her youth. The prayer of Ishmael was acceptable before God, and He bade Miriam's well spring up, the well created in the twilight of the sixth day of creation. Even after this miracle Hagar's faith was no stronger than before. She filled the bottle with water, because she feared it might again be spent, and no other would be nigh. Thereupon she journeyed to Egypt with her son, for "Throw the stick into the air as thou wilt, it will always land on its point." Hagar had come from Egypt, and to Egypt she returned, to choose a wife for her son.
