Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. 2 And Sarai said to Abram, "Behold now, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her." And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.Seeing anything yet?
3 So, after Abram ahad lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife. 4 And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress.
5 And Sarai said to Abram, "May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my servant to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May athe LORD judge between you and me!"
6 But Abram said to Sarai, "Behold, your servant is in your power; do to her as you please." Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her. (Gen 16:1-6 ESV)
The driving tension involves a husband, a wife and Yhwh. The tension is brought to a head as the wife becomes convinced that Yhwh is stingy and has short-changed her. This is stated in a way that contains a certain amount of factual truth, while misrepresenting the character of Yhwh's actions.
The wife perceives a means by which she may gain that which Yhwh has allegedly withheld from her. This course of action seems good to her, despite seeming obviously flawed to the reader. And so the wife takes, and gives to her husband. The husband, passively and without a reported word, listens to his wife and receives that which is offered.
Then the negative consequences become all too apparent to the man and wife. Each party shifts responsibility for the situation to the other. The final result, is that someone becomes an exile.
Sound familiar? If there isn't significant reference to patterns set up in Genesis 3 I'll eat my exegetical hat. Which is easy. Because it's imaginary. Unless you buy me a real one.
Implications for exegesis? Probably lots, I'd have to think about it. Or get you guys to tell me. It really casts the Genesis 16 event in terms of the nature of Adam and Eve's sin. It proceeds again from a wrong view of God and ends in a failure to trust his predictive word.
Now something that is also interesting to me is the fact that there are, perhaps, particular resonances with Genesis 3 when read as I have in my project. I'll post on that soon, God willing.