Genesis 16:1-16
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Hagar and Ishmael (1-16)
16 Now Aʹbram’s wife Sarʹai had borne him no children,+ but she had an Egyptian servant whose name was Haʹgar.+
2 So Sarʹai said to Aʹbram: “Please now! Jehovah has prevented me from bearing children. Please, have relations with my servant. Perhaps I can have children by means of her.”+ So Aʹbram listened to what Sarʹai said.
3 After Aʹbram had lived for ten years in the land of Caʹnaan, Aʹbram’s wife Sarʹai took her Egyptian servant Haʹgar and gave her to her husband Aʹbram as his wife.
4 So he had relations with Haʹgar, and she became pregnant. When she realized that she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.
5 At this Sarʹai said to Aʹbram: “The injury done to me is your fault. I was the one who put my servant in your arms,* but when she realized that she was pregnant, she began to despise me. May Jehovah judge between me and you.”
6 So Aʹbram said to Sarʹai: “Look! Your servant is under your authority. Do to her whatever you think is best.” Then Sarʹai humiliated her, and she ran away from her.
7 Later Jehovah’s angel found her at a spring of waters in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur.+
8 And he said: “Haʹgar, servant of Sarʹai, where have you come from and where are you going?” To this she said: “I am running away from my mistress Sarʹai.”
9 Jehovah’s angel then said to her: “Return to your mistress and humble yourself under her hand.”
10 Then Jehovah’s angel said: “I will greatly multiply your offspring,* so that they will be too numerous to count.”+
11 Jehovah’s angel added: “Here you are pregnant, and you will give birth to a son, and you must name him Ishʹma·el,* for Jehovah has heard your affliction.
12 He will be a wild donkey* of a man. His hand will be against everyone, and everyone’s hand will be against him, and he will dwell opposite all his brothers.”*
13 Then she called on the name of Jehovah, who was speaking to her: “You are a God of sight,”+ for she said: “Have I here actually looked upon the one who sees me?”
14 That is why the well was called Beʹer-laʹhai-roi.* (It is between Kaʹdesh and Beʹred.)
15 So Haʹgar bore to Aʹbram a son, and Aʹbram named his son, whom Haʹgar bore, Ishʹma·el.+
16 Aʹbram was 86 years old when Haʹgar bore Ishʹma·el to him.
Footnotes
^ Lit., “in your bosom.”
^ Lit., “seed.”
^ Meaning “God Hears.”
^ Or “an onager,” a kind of wild donkey, though some think that it refers to a zebra. Likely a reference to an independent disposition.
^ Or possibly, “and he will live in hostility to all his brothers.”
^ Meaning “Well of the Living One Who Sees Me.”
