Genesis 16

International Standard Version

Sarai, Hagar, and Ishmael

16 Now Abram’s wife Sarai had not borne a child for him. She had an Egyptian servant girl whose name was Hagar. ² So Sarai told Abram, “You are well aware that the Lord has prevented me from giving birth to a child. Go have sex with my servant, so that I may possibly bear a son^[a] through her.”

Abram listened to Sarai’s suggestion, ³ so Abram’s wife Sarai took her Egyptian servant, Hagar, and gave her as a wife to her husband Abram. This took place^[b] ten years after Abram had settled in the land of Canaan. ⁴ He had sex with Hagar, and she became pregnant. When she realized that she was pregnant, she looked with contempt on her mistress.

⁵ Then Sarai told Abram, “My suffering is your fault! I gave you my servant so you could have sex with her,^[c] and when she discovered that she was pregnant, she looked on me with contempt. May the Lord judge between you and me!”

⁶ Abram answered Sarai, “Look, your servant is under your control, so do to her as you wish.”^[d] So Sarai dealt so harshly with Hagar^[e] that she ran away from Sarai.^[f]

⁷ The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the desert on the road to Shur. ⁸ “Hagar, servant of Sarai,” he asked, “Where are you coming from and where are you going?”

She answered, “I am running away from my mistress Sarai.”

⁹ The angel of the Lord told her, “You must go back to your mistress and submit to her authority.” ¹⁰ The angel of the Lord also told her, “I will greatly multiply your offspring, who will be too many to count.

¹¹ “Look, you are pregnant and will give birth to a son,” the angel of the Lord continued to say to her. “You will name him Ishmael,^[g] because the Lord has heard your cry of^[h] misery. ¹² As a man, he’ll be uncontrollable.^[i] He’ll^[j] be against everyone, everyone will be against him,^[k]and he’ll live in conflict with^[l] all of his relatives.”

¹³ So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are ‘God who sees,’ because I have truly seen the one who looks after me.”

¹⁴ That’s why the spring was called, “The Well of the Living One who Looks after Me.” It was between Kadesh and Bered.

¹⁵ Hagar eventually gave birth to Abram’s son. Abram named his son whom Hagar bore Ishmael. ¹⁶ Abram was 86 years old when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael for Abram.