Hagar

Hagar was an Egyptian slave woman belonging to Sarah who became the mother of Abraham's son Ishmael (Genesis 16). When Sarah remained childless, she gave Hagar to Abraham as a secondary wife, a practice attested in ancient Near Eastern texts. When Hagar conceived and 'looked with contempt' on Sarah, Sarah treated her harshly and she fled into the wilderness, where the angel of the LORD met her and promised that her son Ishmael would be the ancestor of a great nation (Genesis 16:7–12). After Isaac's birth and a conflict over the children's status, Sarah demanded that Hagar and Ishmael be expelled; Abraham reluctantly complied, and God again sustained them in the wilderness (Genesis 21:8–21). Paul uses Hagar and Sarah allegorically in Galatians 4:21–31 to represent the old and new covenants.