Genesis 16

Hagar and Ishmael

1 Sarai, Abram’s wife, had not been able to have kids. But she had an Egyptian servant named Hagar.

2 Sarai said to Abram, ‘Look, God has not let me have kids. Go sleep with my servant. Maybe I can build a family through her.’ Abram agreed to Sarai’s plan.

3 So, after Abram had been living in Canaan for ten years, Sarai gave Hagar, her Egyptian servant, to Abram as his wife.

4 Abram slept with Hagar, and she got pregnant. But when Hagar knew she was pregnant, she started throwing shade at Sarai.

5 Sarai told Abram, ‘This is your fault! I gave my servant to you, and now that she is pregnant, she is disrespecting me. May the Lord judge between you and me!’

6 Abram said, ‘She is your servant. Do whatever you want with her.’ So Sarai started mistreating Hagar, and Hagar ran away.

7 The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert, the one by the road to Shur.

8 He said, ‘Hagar, servant of Sarai, where are you coming from, and where you headed,’ She said, ‘I am running away from my mistress, Sarai.’

9 The angel said, ‘Go back to your mistress and submit to her.’

10 Then the angel said, ‘I will give you so many descendants they will be too many to count.’

11 The angel also said, ‘You are pregnant and is going to have a son. Name him Ishmael, because the Lord heard your misery.’

12 ‘He is going to be wild and untamed like a donkey. He will fight everyone, and everyone will fight him. He will live at odds with all his brothers.’

Hagar’s Response

13 Hagar called the Lord, who spoke to her, ‘The God who sees me,’ because she said, ‘I have seen the One who sees me.’

14 That is why the well there is called Beer Lahai Roi (‘Well of the Living One who sees me’). It is still there between Kadesh and Bered.

Ishmael Is Born

15 Hagar went back and gave birth to Abram’s son, and Abram named him Ishmael.

16 Abram was 86 years old when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael.