When Isaac grew up, quarrels broke out between him and Ishmael, on
account of the rights of the first-born. Ishmael insisted he should
receive a double portion of the inheritance after the death of Abraham,
and Isaac should receive only one portion. Ishmael, who had been
accustomed from his youth to use the bow and arrow, was in the habit of
aiming his missiles in the direction of Isaac, saying at the same time
that he was but jesting.[211] Sarah, however, insisted that Abraham
make over to Isaac all he owned, that no disputes might arise after his
death,[212] "for," she said, "Ishmael is not worthy of being heir with
my son, nor with a man like Isaac, and certainly not with my son
Isaac."[213] Furthermore, Sarah insisted that Abraham divorce himself
from Hagar, the mother of Ishmael, and send away the woman and her son,
so that there be naught in common between them and her own son, either
in this world or in the future world.
Of all the trials Abraham had to undergo, none was so hard to bear as
this, for it grieved him sorely to separate himself from his son. God
appeared to him in the following night, and said to him: "Abraham,
knowest thou not that Sarah was appointed to be thy wife from her
mother's womb? She is thy companion and the wife of thy youth, and I
named not Hagar as thy wife, nor Sarah as thy bondwoman. What Sarah
spoke unto thee was naught but truth, and let it not be grievous in thy
sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman." The next
morning Abraham rose up early, gave Hagar her bill of divorcement, and
sent her away with her son, first binding a rope about her loins that
all might see she was a bondwoman.[214]
The evil glance cast upon her stepson by Sarah made him sick and
feverish, so that Hagar had to carry him, grown-up as he was. In his
fever he drank often of the water in the bottle given her by Abraham as
she left his house, and the water was quickly spent. That she might not
look upon the death of her child, Hagar cast Ishmael under the willow
shrubs growing on the selfsame spot whereon the angels had once spoken
with her and made known to her that she would bear a son. In the
bitterness of her heart, she spoke to God, and said, "Yesterday Thou
didst say to me, I will greatly multiply thy seed, that it shall not be
numbered for multitude, and to-day my son dies of thirst." Ishmael
himself cried unto God, and his prayer and the merits of Abraham
brought them help in their need, though the angels appeared against
Ishmael before God. They said, "Wilt Thou cause a well of water to
spring up for him whose descendants will let Thy children of Israel
perish with thirst?" But God replied, and said, "What is Ishmael at
this moment—righteous or wicked?" and when the angels called him
righteous, God continued, "I treat man according to his deserts at each
moment."[215]
At that moment Ishmael was pious indeed, for he was praying to God in
the following words: "O Lord of the world! If it be Thy will that I
shall perish, then let me die in some other way, not by thirst, for the
tortures of thirst are great beyond all others." Hagar, instead of
praying to God, addressed her supplications to the idols of her youth.
The prayer of Ishmael was acceptable before God, and He bade Miriam's
well spring up, the well created in the twilight of the sixth day of
creation.[216] Even after this miracle Hagar's faith was no stronger
than before. She filled the bottle with water, because she feared it
might again be spent, and no other would be nigh. Thereupon she
journeyed to Egypt with her son, for "Throw the stick into the air as
thou wilt, it will always land on its point." Hagar had come from
Egypt, and to Egypt she returned, to choose a wife for her son.[217]