Genesis 16
New American Standard Bible
Sarai and Hagar
16 Now (A)Sarai, Abram’s wife, had not borne him a child, but she had (B)an Egyptian slave woman whose name was Hagar. 2 So Sarai said to Abram, “See now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. (C)Please have relations with my slave woman; perhaps I will [a]obtain children through her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. 3 And so after Abram had lived (D)ten years in the land of Canaan, Abram’s wife Sarai took Hagar the Egyptian, her slave woman, and gave her to her husband Abram as his wife. 4 Then he had relations with Hagar, and she conceived; and when Hagar became aware that she had conceived, her mistress was insignificant in her sight. 5 So Sarai said to Abram, “(E)May the wrong done to me be upon you! I put my slave woman into your [b]arms, but when she saw that she had conceived, I was insignificant in her [c]sight. (F)May the Lord judge between [d]you and me.” 6 But Abram said to Sarai, “Look, your slave woman is in your [e]power; do to her what is good in your [f]sight.” So Sarai treated her harshly, and (G)she fled from her presence.
7 Now (H)the angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to (I)Shur. 8 He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s slave woman, (J)from where have you come, and where are you going?” And she said, “I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.” 9 So the angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit [g]to her authority.” 10 The (K)angel of the Lord also said to her, “(L)I will greatly multiply your [h]descendants so that [i]they will be too many to count.” 11 The angel of the Lord said to her further,
“Behold, you are pregnant,
And you will give birth to a son;
And you shall name him [j]Ishmael,
Because (M)the Lord has heard your affliction.
12 But he will be a (N)wild donkey of a man;
His hand will be against everyone,
And everyone’s hand will be against him;
And he will live [k](O)in defiance of all his brothers.”
13 Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “[l]You are [m]a God who sees me”; for she said, “(P)Have I even seen Him here and lived after [n]He saw me?” 14 Therefore the well was called [o]Beer-lahai-roi; behold, it is between (Q)Kadesh and Bered.
15 So Hagar bore a son to Abram; and Abram named his son, to whom Hagar gave birth, Ishmael. 16 Abram was (R)eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to [p]him.
Footnotes
- Genesis 16:2 Lit be built from her
- Genesis 16:5 Lit breast
- Genesis 16:5 Lit eyes
- Genesis 16:5 Lit me and you
- Genesis 16:6 Lit hand
- Genesis 16:6 Lit eyes
- Genesis 16:9 Lit under her hands
- Genesis 16:10 Lit seed
- Genesis 16:10 Lit they shall not be counted for multitude
- Genesis 16:11 I.e., God hears
- Genesis 16:12 Lit before the face of; or opposite
- Genesis 16:13 Or You, God, see me
- Genesis 16:13 Heb Elroi
- Genesis 16:13 Lit His seeing me
- Genesis 16:14 I.e., the well of the living one who sees me
- Genesis 16:16 Lit Abram
Genesis 16
New Living Translation
The Birth of Ishmael
16 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had not been able to bear children for him. But she had an Egyptian servant named Hagar. 2 So Sarai said to Abram, “The Lord has prevented me from having children. Go and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have children through her.” And Abram agreed with Sarai’s proposal. 3 So Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian servant and gave her to Abram as a wife. (This happened ten years after Abram had settled in the land of Canaan.)
4 So Abram had sexual relations with Hagar, and she became pregnant. But when Hagar knew she was pregnant, she began to treat her mistress, Sarai, with contempt. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “This is all your fault! I put my servant into your arms, but now that she’s pregnant she treats me with contempt. The Lord will show who’s wrong—you or me!”
6 Abram replied, “Look, she is your servant, so deal with her as you see fit.” Then Sarai treated Hagar so harshly that she finally ran away.
7 The angel of the Lord found Hagar beside a spring of water in the wilderness, along the road to Shur. 8 The angel said to her, “Hagar, Sarai’s servant, where have you come from, and where are you going?”
“I’m running away from my mistress, Sarai,” she replied.
9 The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit to her authority.” 10 Then he added, “I will give you more descendants than you can count.”
11 And the angel also said, “You are now pregnant and will give birth to a son. You are to name him Ishmael (which means ‘God hears’), for the Lord has heard your cry of distress. 12 This son of yours will be a wild man, as untamed as a wild donkey! He will raise his fist against everyone, and everyone will be against him. Yes, he will live in open hostility against all his relatives.”
13 Thereafter, Hagar used another name to refer to the Lord, who had spoken to her. She said, “You are the God who sees me.”[a] She also said, “Have I truly seen the One who sees me?” 14 So that well was named Beer-lahai-roi (which means “well of the Living One who sees me”). It can still be found between Kadesh and Bered.
15 So Hagar gave Abram a son, and Abram named him Ishmael. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Ishmael was born.
Footnotes
- 16:13 Hebrew El-roi.
New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
