על הבריחה והמציאה א׳On Flight and Finding 1
א׳
1[1] “And Sarai evil-entreated her, and she fled from her face. And an angel of the Lord found her at the fountain of water in the wilderness, at the fountain in the way to Shur. And the angel of the Lord said unto her, ‘Handmaid of Sarai, whence comest thou? and whither goest thou?’ And she said, ‘From the face of Sarai my mistress I am fleeing.’ And the angel of the Lord said unto her, ‘Return to thy mistress, and humble thyself under her hands’ (Gen. 16:6–9). And the angel of the Lord said unto her, ‘Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son; and thou shalt call his name Ishmael, because the Lord hath hearkened to thy humiliation. He shall be a dweller in the fields; his hands shall be against all men, and all men’s hands shall be against him’ ” (ibid. 11, 12).
ב׳
2[2] Having in the preceding treatise said what was fitting about the courses of preliminary training and about evil-entreatment, we will next proceed to set forth the subject of fugitives. For the Lawgiver has in several places made mention of those who run away, as he does here, saying of Hagar that upon being evil-entreated “she ran away from the face of her mistress.”
ג׳
3[3] There are, I think, three motives for flight: hatred, fear, and shame. From hatred wives leave husbands and husbands wives; from fear children leave their parents and servants their masters; from shame friends leave their fellows when something they have done displeases them. I know fathers whose effeminacy has made them unwilling to face the strict and philosophic life of their sons, and who out of shame have chosen to live in the country instead of in the city.
ד׳
4[4] Instances of the working of these three motives are to be found in the sacred writings. Jacob, the Practiser, as we shall presently shew, flies from his father-in-law Laban out of hatred, from his brother Esau out of fear.
ה׳
5[5] Hagar’s motive for departing is shame.
ו׳
6A sign of this is the fact that an angel, a Divine Word, meets her to advise the right course, and to suggest return to the house of her mistress. This angel addresses her in the encouraging words, “The Lord hath hearkened to thy humiliation” (Gen. 16:11), a humiliation prompted neither by fear nor by hatred, the one the feeling of an ignoble, the other of a quarrelsome soul, but by shame, the outward expression of inward modesty.
ז׳
7[6] Had she run away owing to fear, the angel would probably have moved her who had inspired the fear to a gentler frame of mind; for then, and not till then, would it have been safe for the fugitive to go back. But no angel first approached Sarai, seeing that she is favourably disposed of her own accord. But it is Hagar who is taught by the angel monitor, whose goodwill to her makes him at once her friend and counsellor, not to feel only shame, but to be of good courage as well; pointing out that shame apart from confidence is but a half virtue.