16Genesis 16

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,Select Genesis 16:1

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,Select Genesis 16:2

3and Sarai gave him Hagar to be his wife. This happened after Abram had lived in the land of Canaan for ten years.Select Genesis 16:3

4Later, when Hagar knew she was going to have a baby, she became proud and treated Sarai hatefully.Select Genesis 16:4

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.”Select Genesis 16:5

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.Select Genesis 16:6

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 herSelect Genesis 16:7

8and asked, “Hagar, where have you come from, and where are you going?” She answered, “I'm running away from Sarai, my owner.”Select Genesis 16:8

9The angel said, “Go back to Sarai and be her slave.Select Genesis 16:9

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.Select Genesis 16:11

12But your son will live far from his relatives; he will be like a wild donkey, fighting everyone, and everyone fighting him.”Select Genesis 16:12

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.”Select Genesis 16:13

14That's why people call the well between Kadesh and Bered, “The Well of the Living One Who Sees Me.”Select Genesis 16:14

16Abram was 86 years old when Hagar gave birth to their son, and he named him Ishmael.Select Genesis 16:16