Hagar and Ishmael

16 Now Sarai,^(A) Abram’s wife, had borne him no children.^(B) But she had an Egyptian slave^(C) named Hagar;^{(D) 2} so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children.^(E) Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.”^(F)

Abram agreed to what Sarai said. ³ So after Abram had been living in Canaan^(G) ten years,^(H) Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. ⁴ He slept with Hagar,^(I) and she conceived.

When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.^{(J) 5} Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me.”^(K)

⁶ “Your slave is in your hands,^(L)” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated^(M) Hagar; so she fled from her.

¹⁰ The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.”^(A)

²⁰ And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers.^(A) He will be the father of twelve rulers,^(B) and I will make him into a great nation.^(C)

²¹ When the angel of the Lord did not show himself again to Manoah and his wife, Manoah realized^(A) that it was the angel of the Lord.

²² “We are doomed^(B) to die!” he said to his wife. “We have seen^(C) God!”

⁸ And he said, “Hagar,^(A) slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”^(B)

“I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered.

⁹ Then the angel of the Lord told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.”

Instructions for Christian Households^(A)

²¹ Submit to one another^(B) out of reverence for Christ.

²² Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands^(C) as you do to the Lord.^(D)

¹⁷ Have confidence in your leaders^(A) and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you^(B) as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you.

⁶ like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her lord.^(A) You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear.

⁷ Husbands,^(B) in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.