Chapter 16

Abram’s Son Ishmael.^{[a] 1} Now Sarai, the wife of Abram, did not have any children. She had an Egyptian slave named Hagar. ² Sarai said to Abram, “Behold, the Lord has kept me from having children; sleep with my slave. Maybe I can have children through her.”

Abram did what Sarai had told him to do. ³ Thus, ten years after Abram had begun to live in the land of Canaan, Sarai, the wife of Abram, took Hagar the Egyptian, her slave, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife. ⁴ He slept with Hagar, and she became pregnant.

But once she realized that she was pregnant, she no longer treated her mistress with respect. ⁵ Therefore, Sarai said to Abram, “May this affront fall upon you! I gave you my maid to embrace, but when she realized that she was pregnant, she stopped treating me with respect. Let the Lord judge between you and me.”

⁶ Abram said to Sarai, “Behold, your slave is in your hands. Do with her as you see fit.” Sarai then maltreated her so much that Hagar ran away.

⁷ The angel of the Lord^[b] found her near a spring in the desert. The spring was on the road to Shur. ⁸ The angel said to her, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She answered, “I am running away from my mistress Sarai.”

⁹ The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress and be obedient to her.” ¹⁰ The angel of the Lord continued, “I will multiply the number of your descendants so much that you will not be able to count them.”

¹¹ The angel of the Lord added,

¹³ Hagar gave a name to the Lord who had spoken to her, “You are the God of the Vision.”^[c] Therefore, she said, “Here I remained alive after having received this vision.” ¹⁴ Because of this, the well is called Beer-lahai-roi. It is between Kedesh and Bered.

¹⁵ Hagar gave birth to Abram’s son. Abram named the son whom Hagar had borne Ishmael. ¹⁶ Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael.

⁹ But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, the one whom she had borne to Abraham, playing with^[a] her son Isaac. ¹⁰ She said to Abraham, “Send this slave and her son away, for the son of this slave must not be an heir together with my son Isaac.”

¹¹ This greatly distressed Abraham for he was concerned for his son. ¹² But God said to Abraham, “Do not let this matter with your son and the slave woman distress you. Listen to what Sarah tells you. Listen to her voice, for it is through Isaac that descendants will bear your name. ¹³ But I will also make the son of the slave woman become a great nation, for he is your son.”

¹⁴ Abraham arose early in the morning and gave Hagar bread and a skin of water, placing them on her back. He entrusted the child to her and sent her away. They left and wandered in the desert of Beer-sheba.

¹⁵ When they used up all the water in the skin, she placed the child under a bush ¹⁶ and went and sat down opposite him, about the distance of a bowshot. She said, “I do not want to see the child die.” She sat opposite him and began to sob.

¹⁷ But God heard the voice of the child, and the angel of God called upon Hagar from the heavens and said, “What is the matter, Hagar? Do not fear because God has heard the voice of the child from where he lies.

¹² Descendants and Death of Ishmael.^[a] These are the descendants of Ishmael, the son of Abraham, whose mother was Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s slave.

²⁴ Now this is an allegory. These women represent two covenants. One covenant is given on Mount Sinai and bears children who are born into slavery; this is Hagar.

²⁵ Hagar stands for Sinai, a mountain in Arabia, and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, for she is in slavery together with her children.