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)

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.

¹⁷ Abraham fell facedown;^(A) he laughed^(B) and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old?^(C) Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?”^{(D) 18} And Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael^(E) might live under your blessing!”^(F)