16Genesis 16

Hagar and Ishmael

1Abram's wife Sarai had not borne him any children. But she had an Egyptian slave woman named Hagar,Select Genesis 16:1

2and so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Why don't you sleep with my slave? Perhaps she can have a child for me.” Abram agreed with what Sarai said.Select Genesis 16:2

3So she gave Hagar to him to be his concubine. (This happened after Abram had lived in Canaan for ten years.)Select Genesis 16:3

4Abram had intercourse with Hagar, and she became pregnant. When she found out that she was pregnant, she became proud and despised Sarai.Select Genesis 16:4

5Then Sarai said to Abram, “It's your fault that Hagar despises me. I myself gave her to you, and ever since she found out that she was pregnant, she has despised me. May the Lord judge which of us is right, you or me!”Select Genesis 16:5

6Abram answered, “Very well, she is your slave and under your control; do whatever you want with her.” Then Sarai treated Hagar so cruelly that she ran away.Select Genesis 16:6

7The angel of the Lord met Hagar at a spring in the desert on the road to ShurSelect Genesis 16:7

8and said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She answered, “I am running away from my mistress.”Select Genesis 16:8

9He said, “Go back to her and be her slave.”Select Genesis 16:9

10Then he said, “I will give you so many descendants that no one will be able to count them.Select Genesis 16:10

11You are going to have a son, and you will name him Ishmael, because the Lord has heard your cry of distress.Select Genesis 16:11

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

13Hagar asked herself, “Have I really seen God and lived to tell about it?” So she called the Lord, who had spoken to her, “A God Who Sees.”Select Genesis 16:13

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

15Hagar bore Abram a son, and he named him Ishmael.Select Genesis 16:15

16Abram was eighty-six years old at the time.Select Genesis 16:16