Genesis 16

Ishmael Is Born

16Sarai, Abram’s wife, had no children, but she had a slave girl from Egypt named Hagar. ²Sarai said to Abram, “Look, the Lord has not allowed me to have children, so have sexual relations with my slave girl. If she has a child, maybe I can have my own family through her.”

Abram did what Sarai said. ³It was after he had lived ten years in Canaan that Sarai gave Hagar to her husband Abram. (Hagar was her slave girl from Egypt.)

⁴Abram had sexual relations with Hagar, and she became pregnant. When Hagar learned she was pregnant, she began to treat her mistress Sarai badly. ⁵Then Sarai said to Abram, “This is your fault. I gave my slave girl to you, and when she became pregnant, she began to treat me badly. Let the Lord decide who is right—you or me.”

⁶But Abram said to Sarai, “You are Hagar’s mistress. Do anything you want to her.” Then Sarai was hard on Hagar, and Hagar ran away.

⁷The angel of the Lord found Hagar beside a spring of water in the desert, by the road to Shur. ⁸The angel said, “Hagar, Sarai’s slave girl, where have you come from? Where are you going?”

Hagar answered, “I am running away from my mistress Sarai.”

⁹The angel of the Lord said to her, “Go home to your mistress and obey her.” ¹⁰The angel also said, “I will give you so many descendants they cannot be counted.”

¹¹The angel added,

“You are now pregnant,

and you will have a son.

You will name him Ishmael, ⁿ

because the Lord has heard your cries.

¹²Ishmael will be like a wild donkey.

He will be against everyone,

and everyone will be against him.

He will attack all his brothers.”

¹³The slave girl gave a name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are ‘God who sees me,’ ” because she said to herself, “Have I really seen God who sees me?” ¹⁴So the well there, between Kadesh and Bered, was called Beer Lahai Roi. ⁿ

¹⁵Hagar gave birth to a son for Abram, and Abram named him Ishmael. ¹⁶Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael.