Genesis 16

1 Up to that time, Abram’s wife Sarai had not given birth to any children for Abram. But she had a female slave from Egypt, whose name was Hagar.

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

2 [So one day] Sarai said to Abram, “Listen to me! Yahweh has not allowed me to become pregnant. So (sleep with/have sex with) [EUP] my slave Hagar. Perhaps she will bear children whom I can consider to be mine.” Abram agreed to do what Sarai said.

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 Abram (slept with/had sex with) Hagar, his wife Sarai’s slave from Egypt. This happened ten years after they went to live in Canaan [land]. Sarai gave Hagar to her husband to be his secondary wife.

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 He (slept with/had sex with) [EUP] Hagar and she became pregnant. When she realized that she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress Sarai.

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 said to Abram, “It is your fault! I put my servant into your arms, so that you could sleep with her [EUP]. Now she realizes that she is pregnant, and she despises me. I think Yahweh will punish you for doing this to 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 So Abram said to Sarai, “[You listen to me]! She is your servant, so act towards her in the way you consider best.” Then Sarai started to mistreat her, so she ran away from Sarai.

“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 An angel of Yahweh found her as she was near a spring of water in the desert. It was the spring that was alongside 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 said to her, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?” She replied, “I have run away from Sarai, my mistress.”

“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 The angel said, “Go back to your mistress and be under her authority [MTY]”.

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

10 The angel also said to her, “I will enable you to bear so many descendants that no one will be able to count them!”

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

11 The angel also said to her, “[Listen to this!] You are pregnant. You will give birth to a son. You must name him Ishmael, [which means ‘God hears]’, because Yahweh has heard you crying because you feel so miserable.

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 But your son will be as uncontrollable as a wild donkey [MET]. He will oppose everyone, and everyone will oppose him [MTY]. He will live far away from his relatives [SYN].”

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 Then Hagar realized that the angel was really Yahweh, so she said to herself, “(It is difficult to believe that I have really seen the back of Yahweh, the one who sees me!/Have I really seen the back of Yahweh, the one who sees me?)” [RHQ] So she called him ‘Yahweh, 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 is why people call the well there ‘Beer-Lahai-Roi’, [which means, ‘The well of the living one who sees us’!] It is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.

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

15 So Hagar later gave birth to a son for Abram, and she gave to her son the name Ishmael.

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

16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar gave birth to Abram’s son Ishmael.

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