OEB GEN Chapter 16

Hagar and Ishmael

16 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children, but she had an Egyptian slave-girl whose name was Hagar. 2 Sarai said to Abram, ‘the Lord has denied me children; Take my slave-girl; maybe I will obtain children by her.’ Then Abram listened to her 3 so she took Hagar the Egyptian, her slave-girl, after Abram had lived for ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to Abram her husband to be his wife 4 and Abram lay with Hagar, and she conceived. When she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress.

5 Sarai complained to Abram, ‘May the wrong I suffer be on you! I myself gave my slave-girl to you; and now that she sees that she has conceived, I am despised by her; may the Lord judge between me and you.’ 6 But Abram said to Sarai, ‘Your maid-servant is in your power, do to her whatever seems right to you.’ Then Sarai ill-treated her so that she fled from her presence.

7 The messenger of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring in the way to Shur. 8 He said, ‘Hagar, Sarai’s slave-girl, where have you come from? And where are you going?’ She said, ‘I am fleeing from the presence of mistress Sarai.’ 9 Then the messenger of the Lord said to her, ‘Return to your mistress and submit yourself to her authority.’ 10 Moreover the messenger of the Lord said to her, ‘I will make your descendants so many that they can not be numbered because they are so numerous.’ 11 The messenger of the Lord also said to her, ‘You are pregnant, and will have a son; you must call him Ishmael God hears, because the Lord has heard of your ill-treatment.’

12 He shall be like a wild donkey,

his hand against every man,

and every man’s hand against him;

and he will live at odds with all his relatives.

13 Then she called the name of the Lord, who had spoken to her, El-roi (You are a God who sees me); for she said, ‘Have I seen God and am I still alive after I have looked upon him?’ 14 Therefore the well is called Beer-lahai-roi[fn], ( it is between Kadesh and Bered) 15 Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old, when Hagar bore Ishmael.