When Sarai restored her to the status of a slave, as the civil law of that time permitted, and even took recourse to corporal punishment as the Hebrew term “dealt hardly” implies, Hagar left the home of Abram and fled. If the slave was legally at fault in running away, her mistress was certainly liable to censure.

Section 146 of the ancient Mesopotamian code of Hammurabi says that “if later that female slave has claimed equality with her mistress because she bore children, her mistress may not sell her; she may mark her with the slave-mark and count her among the slaves.” This law permitted the humiliation of an overbearing slave-concubine, but also laid certain restrictions upon her owner. Abram, a Mesopotamian by birth and education, was certainly well acquainted with the laws and customs of his homeland, and complied therefore with the law, which allowed his wife to humiliate Hagar but not to sell her. Abram’s conciliatory disposition is also apparent from the permission he gave Sarai. He suppressed his own feelings in order to restore harmony to the troubled home. On the other hand, he exhibited weakness in yielding to Sarai’s passionate purpose to inflict unjustifiable punishment on the future mother of his child.