CHAPTER 16
Now Abram’s
wife
Sarai
had not
borne a child
to him,
but
she had an Egyptian
maidservant
named
Hagar.
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.”
Abram
listened
to the voice
of Sarai.
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.
And he slept with
Hagar,
and she conceived.
But when Hagar realized
that
she was pregnant,
she began to despise
her mistress.
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.”
“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.
Now the Angel
of the LORD
found
Hagar by
a spring
of water
in the desert—
the spring
along the road
to Shur.
“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.
Then the Angel
added,
“I will greatly multiply
your offspring
so that
they will be too numerous
to count.”
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.
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.”
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!”