16Now Sarai,^k Abram’s wife, had borne him no children.^l But she had an Egyptian slave^m named Hagar;ⁿ ²so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children.^o Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.”^p

Abram agreed to what Sarai said. ³So after Abram had been living in Canaan^q ten years,^r Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. ⁴He slept with Hagar,^s and she conceived.

When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.^t ⁵Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me.”^u

⁶“Your slave is in your hands,^v” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated^w Hagar; so she fled from her.

⁷The angel of the Lord^x found Hagar near a spring^y in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur.^z ⁸And he said, “Hagar,^a slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”^b

“I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered.

⁹Then the angel of the Lord told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” ¹⁰The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.”^c

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Cross references

kSee Ge 11:29
lSee Ge 11:30; Lk 1:7, 36; Gal 4:24–25
m Ge 21:9; 24:61; 29:24, 29; 31:33; 46:18
nver 3–4, 8, 15; Ge 21:14; 25:12
o Ge 29:31; 30:2
p Ge 19:32; 30:3–4, 9–10
qSee Ge 12:5
rSee Ge 12:4
sSee ver 1
t Ge 30:1; 1 Sa 1:6
u Ge 31:53; Ex 5:21; Jdg 11:27; 1 Sa 24:12, 15; 26:10, 23; Ps 50:6; 75:7
v Jos 9:25
w Ge 31:50
xver 11; Ge 21:17; 22:11, 15; 24:7, 40; 31:11; 48:16; Ex 3:2; 14:19; 23:20, 23; 32:34; 33:2; Nu 22:22; Jdg 2:1; 6:11; 13:3; 2 Sa 24:16; 1 Ki 19:5; 2 Ki 1:3; 19:35; Ps 34:7; Zec 1:11; See Ac 5:19
yver 14; Ge 21:19
z Ge 20:1; 25:18; Ex 15:22; 1 Sa 15:7; 27:8
aSee ver 1
bSee Ge 3:9
cSee Ge 13:16