16:6 as you please. According to the Code of Hammurabi, the despised mistress in this situation could not sell her maidservant, but she could mark her with the slave mark and count her among the slaves.

dealt harshly . . . fled. The intractable Ishmael is the unruly son of a mother who chose the freedom of the wilderness over submitting to the yoke of her mistress (v. 9).