Page:A critical and exegetical commentary on Genesis (1910).djvu/387

 Ishmaelite nomads and the explication of their relation to Israel. The point of the story is obscured by a redactional excrescence ($9$), obviously inserted in view of the expulsion of Hagar at a later stage. In reality ch. 16 (J) and 22$8-21$ (E) are variants of one tradition; in the Yahwistic version Hagar never returned, but remained in the desert and bore her son by the well Lahai Roi (We. Comp.$2$ 22).—The chapter belongs to the oldest stratum of the Abrahamic legends (J$b$), and is plausibly assigned by Gu. to the same source as 12$10-20$. From the main narrative of J (J$h$) it is marked off by its somewhat unfavourable portraiture of Abram, and by the topography which suggests that Abram's home was in the Negeb rather than in Hebron. The primitive character of the legend is best seen from a close comparison with the Elohistic parallel (see p. 324). Analysis.—Vv.$1a. 3. 15. 16$ belong to P: note the chronological data in $3. 16$; the naming of the child by the father $15$ (ct. $11$);, $3$; and the stiff and formal precision of the style.—The rest is J: cf. , $2. 5. 7 9. 10. 11. 13$;, $1. 2. 5. 6. 8$ (also $3$ [P]); , $2$.—The redactional addition in $9f.$ (v.s.) betrays its origin by the threefold repetition of , a fault of style which is in striking contrast to the exquisite artistic form of the original narrative, though otherwise the language shows no decided departure from Yahwistic usage (Di., but see on v.$10$). 1-6. The flight of Hagar.—1. Hagar is not an ordinary household slave, but the peculiar property of Sarai, and therefore not at the free disposal of her master (cf. 24$59$ 29$24. 29$: see Benzinger, Arch.$2$ 104 f., 126 f.). —an Egyptian] so v.$3$ (P), 21$9$ (E); cf. 21$21$. This consistent tradition points to an admixture of Egyptian blood among the Ishmaelites, the reputed descendants of Hagar. —2. peradventure I may

1a is assigned to P partly because of (cf. v.$3$), and partly because the statement as to Sarai's barrenness supplies a gap in that document, whereas in J it is anticipated by 11$a$.—1b. ] (from the same [root] as ) is originally the slave-concubine; and it is a question