Genesis 16

Amplified Bible, Classic Edition

16 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. She had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar.

² And Sarai said to Abram, See here, the Lord has restrained me from bearing [children]. I am asking you to have intercourse with my maid; it may be that I can obtain children by her. And Abram listened to and heeded what Sarai said.

³ So Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar her Egyptian maid, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his [secondary] wife.

⁴ And he had intercourse with Hagar, and she became pregnant; and when she saw that she was with child, she looked with contempt upon her mistress and despised her.

⁵ Then Sarai said to Abram, May [the responsibility for] my wrong and deprivation of rights be upon you! I gave my maid into your bosom, and when she saw that she was with child, I was contemptible and despised in her eyes. May the Lord be the judge between you and me.

⁶ But Abram said to Sarai, See here, your maid is in your hands and power; do as you please with her. And when Sarai dealt severely with her, humbling and afflicting her, she [Hagar] fled from her.

⁷ But ^[a]the Angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness on the road to Shur.

⁸ And He said, Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where did you come from, and where are you intending to go? And she said, I am running away from my mistress Sarai.

⁹ The Angel of the Lord said to her, Go back to your mistress and [humbly] submit to her control.

¹⁰ Also the Angel of the Lord said to her, I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be numbered for multitude.

¹¹ And the Angel of the Lord continued, See now, you are with child and shall bear a son, and shall call his name Ishmael [God hears], because the Lord has heard and paid attention to your affliction.

¹² And he [Ishmael] will be as a ^[b]wild ass among men; his hand will be against every man and every man’s hand against him, and he will live to the east and on the borders of all his kinsmen.

¹³ So she called the name of the Lord Who spoke to her, You are a God of seeing, for she said, Have I [not] even here [in the wilderness] looked upon Him Who sees me [and lived]? Or have I here also seen [the future purposes or designs of] Him Who sees me?

¹⁴ Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi [A well to the Living One Who sees me]; it is ^[c]between Kadesh and Bered.

¹⁵ And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram called the name of his son whom Hagar bore ^[d]Ishmael.

¹⁶ Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael.