Chapter 1: A Woman with No Name

Years before this story begins, a famine drove Abram out of Canaan and into Egypt. He had a wife named Sarai, and she was beautiful. So beautiful that Abram feared the Egyptians would kill him to take her. So he told them she was his sister.

Pharaoh's men saw Sarai and brought her into the royal household. In return, Pharaoh showered Abram with gifts: sheep, cattle, donkeys, camels, and Egyptian servants.

But God struck Pharaoh's house with plagues. The truth came out. Pharaoh summoned Abram, furious.

PHARAOH“What have you done to me? Why didn't you tell me she was your wife? Take her and go.”— Genesis 12:18-19

Abram left Egypt with everything Pharaoh had given him. The livestock. The silver. The servants.

Among them was an Egyptian girl named Hagar.

Scripture tells us nothing about her. One day she lived in Egypt, and the next she was walking into a foreign desert.

Abram settled in Canaan. God had told him to leave his country, his family, and his father's house and travel to this land. This was the place God would give to him and his descendants, and from them, a great nation would rise. Abram was wealthy, blessed, and chosen. Sarai was his wife, strong-willed, respected, and barren. And Hagar served them both.