Hagar הגר

Midrash says Hagar was a daughter of Pharaoh: seeing what happened to Sarah in the palace, the king decided his daughter would be better off as a servant in that household than a mistress in another. Given to Avraham by the childless Sarah, she conceives and begins to look down on her mistress; Sarah presses her, and Hagar flees into the desert.

There an angel speaks to her—the first time in the Torah an angel addresses a woman—telling her to return and promising numerous offspring. She names the well and God Himself: "You are the God of seeing." A nameless servant becomes the first person in the Torah to give God a name.

Her second departure is with her exiled son. When the water runs out she sets the boy under a bush and turns away, and an angel shows her a well that was there all along. Many commentators identify Hagar with Keturah, whom Avraham married after Sarah's death.