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16 But Sarai and Abram had no children. So Sarai took her maid, an Egyptian girl named Hagar, 2-3 and gave her to Abram to be his second wife.

“Since the Lord has given me no children,” Sarai said, “you may sleep with my servant girl, and her children shall be mine.”

And Abram agreed. (This took place ten years after Abram had first arrived in the land of Canaan.) So he slept with Hagar, and she conceived; and when she realized she was pregnant, she became very proud and arrogant toward her mistress Sarai.

Then Sarai said to Abram, “It’s all your fault. For now this servant girl of mine despises me, though I myself gave her the privilege of being your wife. May the Lord judge you for doing this to me!”[a]

“You have my permission to punish the girl as you see fit,” Abram replied. So Sarai beat her and she ran away.

The Angel of the Lord found her beside a desert spring along the road to Shur.

The Angel: “Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from, and where are you going?”

Hagar: “I am running away from my mistress.”

9-12 The Angel: “Return to your mistress and act as you should, for I will make you into a great nation. Yes, you are pregnant and your baby will be a son, and you are to name him Ishmael (‘God hears’), because God has heard your woes. This son of yours will be a wild one—free and untamed as a wild ass! He will be against everyone, and everyone will feel the same toward him. But he will live near the rest of his kin.”

13 Thereafter[b] Hagar spoke of Jehovah—for it was he who appeared to her—as “the God who looked upon me,” for she thought, “I saw God and lived to tell it.”

14 Later that well was named “The Well of the Living One Who Sees Me.” It lies between Kadesh and Bered.

15 So Hagar gave Abram a son, and Abram named him Ishmael. 16 (Abram was eighty-six years old at this time.)

Footnotes

  1. Genesis 16:5 May the Lord judge you for doing this to me, literally, “Let the Lord judge between me and you.”
  2. Genesis 16:13 Thereafter, implied.

Hagar and Ishmael

16 Now Sarai,(A) Abram’s wife, had borne him no children.(B) But she had an Egyptian slave(C) named Hagar;(D) so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children.(E) Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.”(F)

Abram agreed to what Sarai said. So after Abram had been living in Canaan(G) ten years,(H) Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. He slept with Hagar,(I) and she conceived.

When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.(J) Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me.”(K)

“Your slave is in your hands,(L)” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated(M) Hagar; so she fled from her.

The angel of the Lord(N) found Hagar near a spring(O) in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur.(P) And he said, “Hagar,(Q) slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”(R)

“I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered.

Then the angel of the Lord told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” 10 The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.”(S)

11 The angel of the Lord(T) also said to her:

“You are now pregnant
    and you will give birth to a son.(U)
You shall name him(V) Ishmael,[a](W)
    for the Lord has heard of your misery.(X)
12 He will be a wild donkey(Y) of a man;
    his hand will be against everyone
    and everyone’s hand against him,
and he will live in hostility
    toward[b] all his brothers.(Z)

13 She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,(AA)” for she said, “I have now seen[c] the One who sees me.”(AB) 14 That is why the well(AC) was called Beer Lahai Roi[d];(AD) it is still there, between Kadesh(AE) and Bered.

15 So Hagar(AF) bore Abram a son,(AG) and Abram gave the name Ishmael(AH) to the son she had borne. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old(AI) when Hagar bore him Ishmael.

Footnotes

  1. Genesis 16:11 Ishmael means God hears.
  2. Genesis 16:12 Or live to the east / of
  3. Genesis 16:13 Or seen the back of
  4. Genesis 16:14 Beer Lahai Roi means well of the Living One who sees me.