Hagar
“And Abraham rose up early in the morning and took bread and a bottle of water and gave it unto
Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the child and sent away; and she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beer-Sheba."
(Genesis, chapter 21, verse 14)
He rose up early in the morning
And took bread
And a bottle of water
And gave it unto Hagar,
Putting it on her shoulder.
As he sent her away
He dared not look her in the eye;
When he placed the child in her arms,
His face was pale with shame
As he thus sent them from their home.
She went on her way in the morning,
She went with the boy who was crying,
She went out there in the sun,
She went south to the wilderness
Wandering in the desert of Beer-Sheba,
The dry uncultivated waste land.
And when they finished the bread
And the water from the goatskin,
Then under one of the shrubs
She cast her own child.
And as is written in the Bible,
“She went and sat down over against him
A good way off, As it were a bow shot”,
With no strength left
She sat there and wept
For she said, let
Me not see my child’s death.
And there was only the blazing sun
With a quiet crying of the child,
So that only God could hear
And salvage a dying lad.
And took bread
And a bottle of water
And gave it unto Hagar,
Putting it on her shoulder.
As he sent her away
He dared not look her in the eye;
When he placed the child in her arms,
His face was pale with shame
As he thus sent them from their home.
She went on her way in the morning,
She went with the boy who was crying,
She went out there in the sun,
She went south to the wilderness
Wandering in the desert of Beer-Sheba,
The dry uncultivated waste land.
And when they finished the bread
And the water from the goatskin,
Then under one of the shrubs
She cast her own child.
And as is written in the Bible,
“She went and sat down over against him
A good way off, As it were a bow shot”,
With no strength left
She sat there and wept
For she said, let
Me not see my child’s death.
And there was only the blazing sun
With a quiet crying of the child,
So that only God could hear
And salvage a dying lad.
Written by Moshe D. Shafrir-Stillman