How does one handle the problem of childlessness, especially in a society that places a premium on having children? To the contemporary reader Abram and Sarai’s method appears quite strange and highly suspect. Sarai offers her maidservant Hagar to Abram. He cohabits with her, and he fathers a child—Ishmael. This child then becomes Sarai’s child. Such a procedure, however illicit it may sound to us, is well documented in ancient literary sources such as the Code of Hammurabi and in the texts from Nuzi. Still one wonders to what degree Abram’s belief in the Lord (15:6) informs his action in 16:1–4. If there is a vivid contrast between the Abram of the first half of chapter 12 and the second half of chapter 12, then we observe an equally vivid contrast between the Abram of chapter 15 and tha…