Abraham's Grand Bargain with Lord Yahweh
Abraham and Sarah were getting quite old, well past the age when most parents have children. Sarah was worried that she was too old to become a mother. She had an Egyptian slave girl who was young and pretty, so Sarah went to Abraham one day and said to him, “Abraham, I haven't been able to have a child. Take my slave girl Hagar as another wife and go to bed with her and get her pregnant and have a child with her so I can have a son.” Abraham agreed, so one evening Sarah brought Hagar to Abraham, and he took her into his bed as his second wife and slept with her, and soon she was pregnant. Once Hagar was pregnant her attitude toward Sarah changed. Hagar became rude and insolent and looked on Sarah with hostility and contempt. Sarah went to Abraham and said to him, “Hagar has forgotten her place and is treating me badly. I gave my slave girl to you as your second wife so that we could have a child—but now that she is pregnant with your child she...