Genesis 16

1 Sarai, Abram's wife, hadn't been able to have any children for him. However, she owned a female Egyptian slave named Hagar,

Now Abram’s wife Sarai had borne him no children, but she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar.

2 so Sarai said to Abram, “Please listen to me. The Lord hasn't let me have any children. So please go and sleep with my slave. Maybe I can have a family through her.” Abram agreed to what Sarai had suggested.

So Sarai said to Abram, “Look now, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Please go to my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.

3 So Sarai, Abram's wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband as his wife. Abram had been living in the land of Canaan for ten years when this happened.

So after he had lived in Canaan for ten years, his wife Sarai took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to Abram to be his wife.

4 Abram slept with Hagar and she became pregnant. When she realized she was pregnant, she treated her mistress with contempt.

And he slept with Hagar, and she conceived. But when Hagar realized that she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.

5 Then Sarai complained to Abram, “What I'm suffering is all your doing! I gave you my servant to sleep with, and now that she knows she's pregnant, she treats me with contempt. May the Lord decide who's at fault—you or me!”

Then Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be upon you! I delivered my servant into your arms, and ever since she saw that she was pregnant, she has treated me with contempt. May the LORD judge between you and me.”

6 “Listen, she's your slave!” Abram replied. “You can do whatever you want to her.” Sarai treated Hagar so badly that she ran away.

“Here,” said Abram, “your servant is in your hands. Do whatever you want with her.” Then Sarai treated Hagar so harshly that she fled from her.

7 The angel of the Lord met Hagar at a spring in the desert—the spring on the road to Shur.

Now the angel of the LORD found Hagar by a spring of water in the desert—the spring along the road to Shur.

8 He asked her, “Hagar, Sarai's slave—where have you come from, and where are you going?” “I'm running away from my mistress Sarai,” she replied.

“Hagar, servant of Sarai,” he said, “where have you come from, and where are you going?” “I am running away from my mistress Sarai,” she replied.

9 “Go back to your mistress and do what she tells you,” the angel of the Lord told her.

So the angel of the LORD told her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her authority.”

10 Then he continued, “I will give you many, many descendants—in fact they'll be so many they can't be counted.”

Then the angel added, “I will greatly multiply your offspring so that they will be too numerous to count.”

11 The angel of the Lord went on to tell her: “Listen! You're pregnant, and you will have a son. You are to name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard how you've suffered.

The angel of the LORD proceeded: “Behold, you have conceived and will bear a son. And you shall name him Ishmael, for the LORD has heard your cry of affliction.

12 He'll be a wild donkey kind of man—he will fight with everyone, and everyone will fight with him. He will forever be fighting with his relatives.”

He will be a wild donkey of a man, and his hand will be against everyone, and everyone’s hand against him; he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.”

13 From then on Hagar called the Lord who spoke to her, “You are the God who sees me,” because she said, “Here I saw the one who sees me.”

So Hagar gave this name to the LORD who had spoken to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “Here I have seen the One who sees me!”

14 That's why the well is called “the Well of the Living One who Sees Me.” It's still there, between Kadesh and Bered.

Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi. It is located between Kadesh and Bered.

15 Hagar gave birth to a son for Abram. Abram named his son Ishmael.

And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne.

16 Abram was 86 when Hagar had Ishmael.

Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to him.