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.

²⁴ That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united^(A) to his wife, and they become one flesh.^(B)

⁴ Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.^(A)” ⁵ He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars^(B)—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring^[a] be.”^(C)

⁷ The angel of the Lord^(A) found Hagar near a spring^(B) in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur.^{(C) 8} And he said, “Hagar,^(D) slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”^(E)

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

¹¹ The angel of the Lord^(G) also said to her:

¹³ She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,^(N)” for she said, “I have now seen^[c] the One who sees me.”^{(O) 14} That is why the well^(P) was called Beer Lahai Roi^[d];^(Q) it is still there, between Kadesh^(R) and Bered.

¹⁵ So Hagar^(S) bore Abram a son,^(T) and Abram gave the name Ishmael^(U) to the son she had borne. ¹⁶ Abram was eighty-six years old^(V) when Hagar bore him Ishmael.

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!”

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.