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.” Abram agreed,[#16.2 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.]

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! 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.”[#16.5 Or “I hope you'll be punished for what you did to me!”]

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, 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.[#16.10,11 In Hebrew “Ishmael” sounds like “God hears.”]

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?” So from then on she called him, “The God Who Sees Me.”[#16.13 One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.; #16.13 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 Or “Beer-Lahai-Roi” (see 25.11).]

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