Hagar and Ishmael

¹ Now Abram’s wife Sarai had borne him no children, but she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar. ² 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 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 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, “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 “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 Now the angel of the LORD found Hagar by a spring of water in the desert — the spring along the road to Shur. ⁸ “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 So the angel of the LORD told her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her authority.” ¹⁰ 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 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 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 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} Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi. It is located between Kadesh and Bered.

¹⁵ 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 bore Ishmael to him.