Genesis 16
16
Abram and Hagar
1Sarai, Abram’s wife, was not able to have children. She owned an Egyptian slave named Hagar. 2So Sarai said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Why don’t you sleep with my slave? Maybe I can build a family through her.” Abram agreed with Sarai.
3After Abram had lived in Canaan for ten years, Abram’s wife Sarai took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife. 4He slept with Hagar, and she became pregnant. When Hagar realized that she was pregnant, she began to be disrespectful to Sarai, her owner.
5So Sarai complained to Abram, “I’m being treated unfairly! And it’s your fault! I know that I gave my slave to you, but now that she’s pregnant, she’s being disrespectful to me. May the Lord decide who is right—you or me.”
6Abram answered Sarai, “Here, she’s your slave. Do what you like with her.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar so much that she ran away.
7The Messenger of the Lord found her by a spring in the desert, the spring on the way to Shur. 8He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s slave, where have you come from, and where are you going?”
She answered, “I’m running away from my owner Sarai.” 9The Messenger of the Lord said to her, “Go back to your owner, and place yourself under her authority.” 10The Messenger of the Lord also said to her, “I will give you many descendants. No one will be able to count them because there will be so many.” 11Then the Messenger of the Lord said to her,
“You are pregnant,
and you will give birth to a son.
You will name him Ishmael [God Hears],
because the Lord has heard your cry of distress.
12He will be as free and wild as an untamed donkey.
He will fight with everyone, and everyone will fight with him.
He will have conflicts with all his relatives.”
13Hagar named the Lord, who had been speaking to her, “You Are the God Who Watches Over Me.” She said, “This is the place where I watched ⌞the one⌟ who watches over me.” 14This is why the well is named Beer Lahai Roi [Well of the Living One Who Watches Over Me]. It is still there between Kadesh and Bered.
15Hagar gave birth to Abram’s son. Abram named him Ishmael. 16Abram was 86 years old when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael.
GOD'S WORD® Translation ©1995, 2003, 2013, 2014, 2019, 2020 by God's Word to the Nations Mission Society. All rights reserved.
Genesis 16
16
1 Now Sarai, the wife of Abram, had not conceived children. But, having an Egyptian handmaid named Hagar,
2 she said to her husband: "Behold, the Lord has closed me, lest I give birth. Enter to my handmaid, so that perhaps I may receive sons of her at least." And when he agreed to her supplication,
3 she took Hagar the Egyptian, her handmaid, ten years after they began to live in the land of Canaan, and she gave her to her husband as a wife.
4 And he entered to her. But when she saw that she had conceived, she despised her mistress.
5 And Sarai said to Abram: "You have acted unfairly against me. I gave my handmaid into your bosom, who, when she saw that she had conceived, held me in contempt. May the Lord judge between me and you."
6 Abram responded to her by saying, "Behold, your handmaid is in your hand to treat as it pleases you." And so, when Sarai afflicted her, she took flight.
7 And when the Angel of the Lord had found her, near the fountain of water in the wilderness, which is on the way to Shur in the desert,
8 he said to her: "Hagar, handmaid of Sarai, where have you come from? And where will you go?" And she answered, "I flee from the face of Sarai, my mistress."
9 And the Angel of the Lord said to her, "Return to your mistress, and humble yourself under her hand."
10 And again he said, "I will multiply your offspring continuously, and they will not be numbered because of their multitude."
11 But thereafter he said: "Behold, you have conceived, and you will give birth to a son. And you shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has heard your affliction.
12 He will be a wild man. His hand will be against all, and all hands will be against him. And he will pitch his tents away from the region of all his brothers."
13 Then she called upon the name of the Lord who had spoken to her: "You are the God who has seen me." For she said, "Certainly, here I have seen the back of the one who sees me."
14 Because of this, she called that well: 'The well of the one who lives and who sees me.' The same is between Kadesh and Bered.
15 And Hagar gave birth to a son for Abram, who called his name Ishmael.
16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael for him.