The revelation to Hagar in the desert reaches a profound turning point with a divine message about the future of her descendants. A heavenly messenger addresses her, using the explicit name of God for the first time. This specific detail provides Hagar with the deep reassurance that she is speaking to a genuine divine messenger, rather than a demon or an impure force common to the desert wilderness [תורה תמימה]. The angel brings her a message of comfort, promising that her suffering will soon come to an end, as God will influence Sarah to stop treating her harshly [מלבי״ם].
The heavenly message includes an announcement about her pregnancy, which raises a question since Hagar was already aware of her condition. The primary approach among commentators is that Hagar had actually miscarried her first child due to the intense hardship she endured. Therefore, the angel is delivering a prophecy about the future, promising that upon her return to Sarah, she will conceive once again [רש״י, מזרחי, משכיל לדוד, גור אריה]. Other scholars suggest that Hagar was indeed pregnant at that moment, and the angel mentions it simply as an opening statement to introduce the true core of the message [רד״ק, מחוקקי יהודה, ביאור שטיינזלץ], or to assure her that her current pregnancy will very soon result in a safe delivery [שד״ל, יהל אור]. The essence of this good news is the gender of the child, as she is assured that she will give birth to a son and not a daughter [ביאור יש״ר, ביאור שטיינזלץ].
The child to be born is given a name even before his birth, making him one of the few individuals in history to receive such a distinction. This early naming indicates that at that specific moment, he was judged favorably based on his current, innocent state [תורה תמימה]. Hagar is directly instructed to name the boy Ishmael, which means God will hear. However, due to her lowly status as a maidservant, she felt too intimidated to name the child herself. Instead, she shared the prophecy with Abraham, who then fulfilled the command of God by giving the boy the designated name. A different perspective suggests that Abraham chose the name Ishmael entirely on his own, guided by divine inspiration [רמב״ן, הטור הארוך].
The reasoning behind the name Ishmael is that God heard Hagar's affliction. Since suffering is typically something that is seen rather than heard, commentators explain that her affliction refers specifically to the prayers and cries that erupted from her deep sorrow [רד״ק, הכתב והקבלה, נתינה לגר, ברכת אשר]. Alternatively, her suffering was not physical but emotional, caused by hurtful words spoken against her; therefore, the pain is accurately described as something that God heard [רש״ר הירש]. Ultimately, God's response to Hagar serves as a powerful lesson that He listens to the prayers of all nations of the world whenever they cry out to Him from a place of genuine distress [העמק דבר].