Some commentators have suggested that Hagar’s anger toward Isaac and his sons was passed on to her son, Ishmael. Hagar, it will be remembered, was “given” to Abraham by Sarah, his wife. Sarah was unable to conceive, but when she did, years after Hagar gave birth to Ishmael, she knew that Hagar and Ishmael had to go. Sarah knew that there could be but one “eldest son of Abraham”, and that son would be hers, not “that bastard”.
So, Sarah made Abraham get rid of Hagar and Ishmael. They went from living with the richest household in the area to having nothing. Hagar is thought by many to have spent the rest of her life telling Ishmael that his duty was to get revenge on Isaac, whose birth prompted their exile.
At the time, divorce was as simple as it still is among the sons of Ishmael. That indicates that they did nothing to keep later Hagars and Ishmaels from being similarly stripped of all they would have been able to claim in the countries whose religions, and possibly peoples, have more thoroughly embraced the divorce teachings of the Jews and Christians. Those who treated women as equals legislated concepts like “alimony” and “child support” and “distribution of marital assets” to their more civilized nations and peoples.
With nothing but God’s promise to help her, Abraham gave Hagar a loaf of bread, a skin of water, and sent her and Ismael on their way. The sons of Ishmael have had the demons of anger reigning supreme among them since, though it must be noted that, when Abraham died, of all Abraham’s less legitimate children, only Ishmael and Isaac are recorded to have helped bury him.
Genesis, 25;18, describing Ishmael, the Bible says, “He set himself to defy his brothers.” Some things never change.
