46 REV. JOHN URQUHART, ON THE BEARING OF RECENT 



borne children, lier mistress shall not sell her for silver : she 

 shall place a mark (or chain) upon her, and count her with the 

 maid-servants." The law had thus decided the case : it was now 

 Sarai's part to apply it. Hagar was degraded. She took her 

 former place among the servants, and not without reminders of 

 her servile position exceedingly bitter to a woman evidently 

 proud of the position from which she was now deposed. 



The second incident arose from the spirit shown by Hagar's 

 son. A feast was made at the weaning of Isaac ; and Sarah 

 detected Ishmael in the act of mocking her child. To her it 

 seems to have been eloquent of what might be expected in 

 coming years. In that view of the matter the situation is 

 intolerable, and she demands the immediate expulsion of the 

 bondwoman and her son." She said : " Cast out this bond- 

 woman and her son : for the son of this bondwoman shall 

 not be heir with my son, even with Isaac" (Gen. xxi, 10). 

 But now there is no acquiescence on the part of Abraham. 

 " And the thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight because 

 of his son " (verse 11). It was only after he received the Divine 

 command to hearken unto lier voice " that Sarah's request was 

 granted, and that Hagar and Ishmael were sent away. We are 

 now enabled to perceive wliat lay behind Abraham's reluctance, 

 and the reason — we may add the necessity — for the Divine 

 assurance which was given him when he was enjoined to do as 

 Sarah said ; " And also of the son of the bondwoman," the 

 Divine assurance ran, "will I make a notion, because he is thy 

 seed" (verse 13). According to the Babylonian code the 

 disinheriting of Ishmael was illegal. "If a man's wife" — so 

 ran the Babylonian law — " has borne him children, and his 

 maid-servant has borne him children, (and) the father in his 

 life-time say to the children whom the maid-serxant has borne 

 to him : ' My children,' he has reckoned them with the 

 children of the wife. After the father has gone to his fate, the 

 children of the wife and the children of the maid-servant shall 

 share in the property of the father's house e([ually." The only 

 advantage which the son of the free-born wife coidd claiin was 

 that of lirst choice. Now Abraham had acknowledged Ishmael 

 as his son. As a just man he could not deprive him of the 

 inheritance which was, therefore, legally his ; and it was only 

 the Divine communication that the lad's future was assured 

 which enabled Abraham to comply. To have such an extremely 

 sensitive response to the times is intelligible in a, fully informed 

 history, but would be a ])ure ini])()ssibility in Hction produced 

 in other and later times. 



