Genesis 16

Hagar and Ishmael

1 Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar;

2 so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her.”
Abram agreed to what Sarai said.3 So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife.

4 He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.
When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.

5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my servant in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me.”

6 “Your servant is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.
7 The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur.

8 And he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”
“I'm running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered.
9 Then the angel of the Lord told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.”

10 The angel added, “I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count.”

11 The angel of the Lord also said to her:
“You are now with child
and you will have a son.
You shall name him Ishmael,
for the Lord has heard of your misery.

12 He will be a wild donkey of a man;
his hand will be against everyone
and everyone's hand against him,
and he will live in hostility
toward all his brothers.”
13 She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.”

14 That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.
15 So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne.

16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.

GENESIS 16

Hagar and Ishmael

1 Abram's wife Sarai had not been able to have any children. But she owned a young Egyptian slave woman named Hagar, 2 and Sarai said to Abram, “The [Lord] has not given me any children. Sleep with my slave, and if she has a child, it will be mine.”t Abram agreed, 3 and Sarai gave him Hagar to be his wife. This happened after Abram had lived in the land of Canaan for ten years.

4 Later, when Hagar knew she was going to have a baby, she became proud and treated Sarai hatefully.

5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “It's all your fault!t I gave you my slave woman, but she has been hateful to me ever since she found out she was pregnant. You have done me wrong, and you will have to answer to the [Lord] for this.”

6 Abram said, “All right! She's your slave—do whatever you want with her.” Then Sarai began treating Hagar so harshly that she finally ran away.
7 Hagar stopped to rest at a spring in the desert on the road to Shur. While she was there, the angel of the [Lord] came to her

8 and asked, “Hagar, where have you come from, and where are you going?”
She answered, “I'm running away from Sarai, my owner.”
9 The angel said, “Go back to Sarai and be her slave. 10-11 I will give you a son, who will be called Ishmael, t because I have heard your cry for help. And someday I will give you so many descendants that no one will be able to count them all.

12 But your son will live far from his relatives; he will be like a wild donkey, fighting everyone, and everyone fighting him.”
13 Hagar thought, “Have I really seen God and lived to tell about it?”t So from then on she called him, “The God Who Sees Me.”t

14 That's why people call the well between Kadesh and Bered, “The Well of the Living One Who Sees Me.”t
15-16  t Abram was 86 years old when Hagar gave birth to their son, and he named him Ishmael.