Genesis 16

Hagar and Ishmael

1Abram's wife Sarai had not been able to have any children. But she owned a young Egyptian slave woman named Hagar, 2and 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.”#16.2 Sleep … mine: It was the custom for a wife who could not have children to let her husband sleep with one of her slave women. The children of the slave would belong to the wife. Abram agreed, 3and Sarai gave him Hagar to be his wife. This happened after Abram had lived in the land of Canaan for ten years. 4Later, when Hagar knew she was going to have a baby, she became proud and treated Sarai hatefully.

5Then Sarai said to Abram, “It's all your fault!#16.5 It's … fault: Or “I hope you'll be punished for what you did to me!” 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.”

6Abram 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.

7Hagar 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 8and asked, “Hagar, where have you come from, and where are you going?”

She answered, “I'm running away from Sarai, my owner.”

9The angel said, “Go back to Sarai and be her slave. 10-11I will give you a son, who will be called Ishmael,#16.10,11 Ishmael: In Hebrew “Ishmael” sounds like “God hears.” 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. 12But your son will live far from his relatives; he will be like a wild donkey, fighting everyone, and everyone fighting him.”

13Hagar thought, “Have I really seen God and lived to tell about it?”#16.13 Have … it: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text. So from then on she called him, “The God Who Sees Me.”#16.13 The God Who Sees Me: Or “The God I Have Seen.” 14That's why people call the well between Kadesh and Bered, “The Well of the Living One Who Sees Me.”#16.14 The Well … Me: Or “Beer-Lahai-Roi” (see 25.11).

15-16 # Ga 4.22. Abram was 86 years old when Hagar gave birth to their son, and he named him Ishmael.

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Genesis 16

CHAPTER 16

1Therefore Sarai, the wife of Abram, had not engendered [to him] free children; but she had a servantess of Egypt, Hagar by name,

2and Sarai said to her husband, Lo! the Lord hath closed me, that I should not bear child; enter thou [in] to my servantess, if in hap I shall take children, namely of her. And when he assented to her praying,

3she took Hagar the Egyptian, her servantess, after ten years after that they began to inhabit the land of Canaan, and she gave Hagar as [a] wife to her husband.

4And Abram entered [in] to Hagar; and Hagar saw that she had conceived, and she despised her lady.

5And Sarai said to Abram, Thou doest wickedly against me; I gave my servantess into thy bosom, which seeth that she [hath] conceived, and despiseth me; the Lord deem betwixt me and thee.

6And Abram answered and said to her, Lo! thy servantess is in thine hand; use thou her as thee liketh. Therefore for Sarai tormented her, she fled away.

7And when the angel of the Lord had found her beside a well of water in wilderness, which well is in the way of Shur in desert,

8he said to her, From whence comest thou Hagar, the servantess of Sarai, and whither goest thou? Which answered, I flee from the face of Sarai, my lady.

9And the angel of the Lord said to her, Turn thou again to thy lady, and be thou meeked under her hands.

10And again he said, I multiplying shall multiply thy seed, and it shall not be numbered for multitude.

11And afterward he said, Lo! thou hast conceived, and thou shalt bear a son, and thou shalt call his name Ishmael, for the Lord hath heard thy torment;

12this shall be a wild man; his hand shall be against all men, and the hands of all men shall be against him; and he shall set his tabernacles even against all his brethren.

13Forsooth Hagar called the name of the Lord that spake to her, Thou God that sawest me; for she said, Forsooth here I saw the hinder things of him that saw me.

14Therefore she called that well, The well of him that liveth and seeth me; that well is betwixt Kadesh and Bered.

15And Hagar childed a son to Abram, which called his name Ishmael.

16Abram was eighty years and six, when Hagar childed Ishmael to him.

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