Genesis 16
16
1Sarai, Abram's wife, hadn't been able to have any children for him. However, she owned a female Egyptian slave named Hagar, 2so Sarai said to Abram, “Please listen to me. The Lord hasn't let me have any children. So please go and sleep with my slave. Maybe I can have a family through her.” Abram agreed to what Sarai had suggested. 3So Sarai, Abram's wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband as his wife. Abram had been living in the land of Canaan for ten years when this happened.
4Abram slept with Hagar and she became pregnant. When she realized she was pregnant, she treated her mistress with contempt.#16:4. “She looked at her mistress with contempt,” literally, “her mistress looked small in her eyes.” Another translation would be “she looked down on her mistress.”
5Then Sarai complained to Abram, “What I'm suffering is all your doing! I gave you my servant to sleep with, and now that she knows she's pregnant, she treats me with contempt. May the Lord decide who's at fault—you or me!”
6“Listen, she's your slave!” Abram replied. “You can do whatever you want to her.” Sarai treated Hagar so badly that she ran away.#16:6. “Ran away”: the Hebrew says, “ran away from her,” but Hagar ran away from the camp rather than just avoid Sarai.
7The angel of the Lord met Hagar at a spring in the desert—the spring on the road to Shur.
8He asked her, “Hagar, Sarai's slave—where have you come from, and where are you going?”
“I'm running away from my mistress Sarai,” she replied.
9“Go back to your mistress and do what she tells you,” the angel of the Lord told her. 10Then he continued, “I will give you many, many descendants—in fact they'll be so many they can't be counted.” 11The angel of the Lord went on to tell her: “Listen! You're pregnant, and you will have a son. You are to name him Ishmael,#16:11. Ishmael means “God hears.” for the Lord has heard how you've suffered. 12He'll be a wild donkey kind of man—he will fight with everyone, and everyone will fight with him. He will forever be fighting with his relatives.”
13From then on Hagar called the Lord who spoke to her, “You are the God who sees me,” because she said, “Here I saw the one who sees me.” 14That's why the well#16:14. This well is the same water source that is called a spring in verse 7. is called “the Well of the Living One who Sees Me.” It's still there, between Kadesh and Bered.
15Hagar gave birth to a son for Abram. Abram named his son Ishmael. 16Abram was 86 when Hagar had Ishmael.
Dr. Jonathan Gallagher. Released under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License. Version 4.3. For corrections send email to jonathangallagherfbv@gmail.com
Genesis 16
16
The Birth of Ishmael
1Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bore him no children. She had an Egyptian slave-girl whose name was Hagar, 2and Sarai said to Abram, “You see that the Lord has prevented me from bearing children; go in to my slave-girl; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. 3So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her slave-girl, and gave her to her husband Abram as a wife. 4He went in to Hagar, and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. 5Then Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my slave-girl to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the Lord judge between you and me!” 6But Abram said to Sarai, “Your slave-girl is in your power; do to her as you please.” Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she ran away from her.
7The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. 8And he said, “Hagar, slave-girl of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am running away from my mistress Sarai.” 9The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit to her.” 10The angel of the Lord also said to her, “I will so greatly multiply your offspring that they cannot be counted for multitude.” 11And the angel of the Lord said to her,
“Now you have conceived and shall bear a son;
you shall call him Ishmael,#16.11 That is God hears
for the Lord has given heed to your affliction.
12He shall be a wild ass of a man,
with his hand against everyone,
and everyone's hand against him;
and he shall live at odds with all his kin.”
13So she named the Lord who spoke to her, “You are El-roi”;#16.13 Perhaps God of seeing or God who sees for she said, “Have I really seen God and remained alive after seeing him?”#16.13 Meaning of Heb uncertain 14Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi;#16.14 That is the Well of the Living One who sees me it lies between Kadesh and Bered.
15Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. 16Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him#16.16 Heb Abram Ishmael.
New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989 Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.