_Abraham and Ishmael's Wife._
Hagar, the handmaid of Sarah, was given as a slave to Abraham, by her
father, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who said: "My daughter had better be a
slave in the house of Abraham than mistress in any other house." Her son
Ishmael, it is said, took unto himself a wife of the daughters of Moab.
Three years afterwards Abraham set out to visit his son, having solemnly
promised Sarah (who, it thus appears, was still jealous of her former
handmaid) that he would not alight from his camel. He reached Ishmael's
house about noontide, and found his wife alone. "Where is Ishmael?"
inquired the patriarch. "He is gone into the wilderness with his mother
to gather dates and other fruits." "Give me, I pray thee, a little bread
and water, for I am fatigued with travelling." "I have neither bread nor
water," rejoined the inhospitable matron. "Well," said the patriarch,
"tell Ishmael when he comes home that an old man came to see him, and
recommends him to change the door-post of his house, for it is not
worthy of him." On Ishmael's return she gave him the message, from which
he at once understood that the stranger was his father, and that he did
not approve of his wife. Accordingly he sent her back to her own people,
and Hagar procured him a wife from her father's house.
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