Genesis 16

Sarai and Hagar

1Abram's wife Sarai had borne him no children. She had an Egyptian slave woman named Hagar. 2Sarai said to Abram, “The LORD has kept me from bearing children. Please have relations with my slave woman. Perhaps I can build a family through her.” Abram listened to Sarai.

3After Abram had lived ten years in Canaan, his wife Sarai took Hagar, her Egyptian slave woman, and gave her to her husband Abram as a wife. 4Abram had relations with Hagar, and she conceived. When she realized she was pregnant, she looked down on her mistress.

5Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong done to me! I put my slave woman in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she looks down on me. May the LORD judge between us!”

6Abram answered, “Your slave woman is in your hands. Do with her as you see fit.” Sarai treated Hagar harshly, and Hagar fled from her.

Hagar in the Wilderness

7The LORD's messenger found Hagar by a spring in the wilderness, the spring beside the road to Shur.

8He said, “Hagar, Sarai's slave woman, where have you come from, and where are you going?” She answered, “I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.”

9The LORD's messenger told her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her authority.”

10The LORD's messenger also said, “I will multiply your descendants until they are too many to count.”

11Then the LORD's messenger said,
“You are pregnant and will bear a son.
Name him Ishmael,
for the LORD has heard your affliction. 12He will be a wild donkey of a man,
his hand against everyone,
and everyone's hand against him.
He will live facing all his brothers.”

13Hagar named the LORD who spoke to her, “You are the God who sees me.” For she said, “Have I really seen here the one who sees me?” 14That is why the well was called Beer-lahai-roi. It lies between Kadesh and Bered.

Ishmael’s Birth

15Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram named the son Hagar had borne Ishmael. 16Abram was eighty-six when Hagar bore him Ishmael.