Genesis 16

Names of God Bible

Abram and Hagar

16 Sarai, Abram’s wife, was not able to have children. She owned an Egyptian slave named Hagar. ² So Sarai said to Abram, “Yahweh has kept me from having children. Why don’t you sleep with my slave? Maybe I can build a family through her.” Abram agreed with Sarai.

³ After Abram had lived in Canaan for ten years, Abram’s wife Sarai took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife. ⁴ He slept with Hagar, and she became pregnant. When Hagar realized that she was pregnant, she began to be disrespectful to Sarai, her owner.

⁵ So Sarai complained to Abram, “I’m being treated unfairly! And it’s your fault! I know that I gave my slave to you, but now that she’s pregnant, she’s being disrespectful to me. May Yahweh decide who is right—you or me.”

⁶ Abram answered Sarai, “Here, she’s your slave. Do what you like with her.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar so much that she ran away.

⁷ The Messenger of Yahweh found her by a spring in the desert, the spring on the way to Shur. ⁸ He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s slave, where have you come from, and where are you going?”

She answered, “I’m running away from my owner Sarai.” ⁹ The Messenger of Yahweh said to her, “Go back to your owner, and place yourself under her authority.” ¹⁰ The Messenger of Yahweh also said to her, “I will give you many descendants. No one will be able to count them because there will be so many.” ¹¹ Then the Messenger of Yahweh said to her,

¹³ Hagar named Yahweh, who had been speaking to her, “You Are El Roi.” She said, “This is the place where I watched the one who watches over me.” ¹⁴ This is why the well is named Beer Lahai Roi [Well of the Living One Who Watches Over Me]. It is still there between Kadesh and Bered.

¹⁵ Hagar gave birth to Abram’s son. Abram named him Ishmael. ¹⁶ Abram was 86 years old when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael.