Hagar’s song

Genesis 21: 8–21



Sarah sent me far away
lest my son usurp her boy
in fortune, rank, or father’s love.

Abraham his wife obeyed,
for peace at home he gave
away his peaceful heart.

God had told him, so he said,
my son would prosper,
Ishmael would grow to be a nation.


Beneath the trees I laid him,
weak with hunger, dying.
Let me go first, I wept, I wept, I wept.

God heard my son cry out,
and spoke to me a promise:
Ishmael will grow to be a nation.

Before my eyes water of life,
I ran to my child, we drank,
we spilled our joy to grow seeds of hope.

I am Hagar, Sarah’s servant,
mother of the first born of Abraham;
God was with my son, grew Ishmael.