Genesis 16

¹Genesis 16:1. Now Abram’s wife Sarai had borne him no children, but she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar.²Genesis 16:2. So Sarai said to Abram, “Look now, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Please go to my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.³Genesis 16:3. So after he had lived in Canaan for ten years, his wife Sarai took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to Abram to be his wife.⁴Genesis 16:4. And he slept with Hagar, and she conceived. But when Hagar realized that she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.⁵Genesis 16:5. Then Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be upon you! I delivered my servant into your arms, and ever since she saw that she was pregnant, she has treated me with contempt. May the LORD judge between you and me.”⁶Genesis 16:6. “Here,” said Abram, “your servant is in your hands. Do whatever you want with her.” Then Sarai treated Hagar so harshly that she fled from her.

⁷Genesis 16:7. Now the angel of the LORD found Hagar by a spring of water in the desert—the spring along the road to Shur.⁸Genesis 16:8. “Hagar, servant of Sarai,” he said, “where have you come from, and where are you going?” “I am running away from my mistress Sarai,” she replied.⁹Genesis 16:9. So the angel of the LORD told her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her authority.”¹⁰Genesis 16:10. Then the angel added, “I will greatly multiply your offspring so that they will be too numerous to count.”¹¹Genesis 16:11. The angel of the LORD proceeded: “Behold, you have conceived and will bear a son. And you shall name him Ishmael, for the LORD has heard your cry of affliction.¹²Genesis 16:12. He will be a wild donkey of a man, and his hand will be against everyone, and everyone’s hand against him; he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.”

¹³Genesis 16:13. So Hagar gave this name to the LORD who had spoken to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “Here I have seen the One who sees me!”¹⁴Genesis 16:14. Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi. It is located between Kadesh and Bered.¹⁵Genesis 16:15. And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne.¹⁶Genesis 16:16. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to him.