A Legal Question: Was Ishmael Abraham's Heir?
During the funeral ceremony at Machpelah all present seemed to regard Yitschaq as the only heir of the dead patriarch. And yet the firstborn of the family was not, as it happened, Yitschaq but Ishmael. It cannot be argued that Ishmael was the son of a concubine and that the law barred him from the inheritance. In fact at his birth Ishmael was formally recognized as a legitimate child. The facts were these: Sarah, Abraham's wife, grieved at her prolonged sterility. On the subject of adoption she could avail herself of a provision of the ancient Babylonian laws to which the Hebrew clan, natives of the delta of the Euphrates, for long remained faithful. According to this, a wife who did not succeed in producing a child could choose one of her slaves 'to take into' her husband and if, as a result, this slave girl gave birth 'on the lap' of the legal wife, the child would henceforth be considered as the wife's own child; in law he would possess all the prerogatives of a legitimate child. Now that is what had happened: Sarah gave Abraham her Egyptian slave Hagar who gave birth 'on Sarah's lap' to Ishmael. Everything thus seemed for the best.
Sarah's harsh campaign against Hagar
On the other hand, we know that some fifteen years later, and contrary to all expectation, Sarah gave birth to Yitschaq. She then started a harsh campaign against Hagar the concubine and her son Ishmael, telling Abraham continually that the son of the slave girl must on no account share the inheritance with her own son Yitschaq. Sarah was successful and the concubine and her son were driven out into the wilderness. They managed to settle in the wilderness of Paran, a desolate and hostile region forming part of the Sinai massif. It is now conceded that Abraham ought not to have abandoned them completely.
It remains true, nonetheless, that in accordance with Sumerian law in force among these wandering shepherds, Ishmael ought to have been regarded not only as a legitimate son (because he was legally adopted) but also as the possessor of all the rights of the elder son, and thereby entitled to a greater share than his brother in the inheritance. In addition, as a general rule the firstborn was regarded as the father's spiritual heir and as the future head of the family. In these circumstances how can it be explained that at Abraham's death we find Yitschaq taking possession of the inheritance and assuming the leadership of the clan?
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