Genesis 16
Legacy Standard Bible
Sarai and Hagar
16 Now (A)Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children, and she had (B)an Egyptian servant-woman whose name was Hagar. 2 So Sarai said to Abram, “Now behold, Yahweh has shut my womb from bearing children. (C)Please go in to my servant-woman; perhaps I will [a]obtain children through her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. 3 And after Abram had [b]lived (D)ten years in the land of Canaan, Abram’s wife Sarai took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant-woman, and gave her to her husband Abram as his wife. 4 So he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. Then she saw that she had conceived, so her mistress became [c]contemptible in her sight. 5 And Sarai said to Abram, “(E)May the violence done to me be upon you. I gave my servant-woman into your [d]embrace, but she saw that she had conceived, so I became [e]contemptible in her [f]sight. (F)May Yahweh judge between [g]you and me.” 6 But Abram said to Sarai, “Behold, your servant-woman is in your [h]hand; do to her what is good in your [i]sight.” So Sarai afflicted her, and (G)she fled from her presence.
7 Now (H)the angel of Yahweh found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to (I)Shur. 8 And he said, “Hagar, Sarai’s servant-woman, (J)where have you come from and where are you going?” And she said, “I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.” 9 Then the angel of Yahweh said to her, “Return to your mistress and [j]humble yourself under her hands.” 10 Moreover, the (K)angel of Yahweh said to her, “(L)I will greatly multiply your seed so that [k]they will be too many to be counted.” 11 And the angel of Yahweh said to her further,
“Behold, you [l]are with child,
And you will bear a son;
And you shall call his name [m]Ishmael,
Because (M)Yahweh has heard your affliction.
12 And 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 dwell [n](O)in the face of all his brothers.”
13 Then she called the name of Yahweh who spoke to her, “[o]You are [p]a God who sees”; for she said, “(P)Have I even [q]remained alive here after seeing Him?” 14 Therefore the well was called [r]Beer-lahai-roi; behold, it is between (Q)Kadesh and Bered.
15 So Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. 16 Now Abram was (R)eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to [s]him.
Footnotes
- Genesis 16:2 Lit be built from her
- Genesis 16:3 Lit dwelt
- Genesis 16:4 Or cursed, cf. 12:3
- Genesis 16:5 Lit bosom
- Genesis 16:5 Or cursed, cf. 12:3
- Genesis 16:5 Lit eyes
- Genesis 16:5 Lit me and you
- Genesis 16:6 Or power
- Genesis 16:6 Lit eyes
- Genesis 16:9 Lit afflict, cf. 16:6
- Genesis 16:10 Or it shall not be counted for multitude
- Genesis 16:11 Or have conceived, cf. 3:16; 21:2; 25:21; Ex 2:2; 1 Sam 1:20; Luke 1:31, 36
- Genesis 16:11 Lit God hears
- Genesis 16:12 Or to the east of, in defiance of
- Genesis 16:13 Or You, O God, see me
- Genesis 16:13 Heb El roi
- Genesis 16:13 Lit seen here after the one who saw me
- Genesis 16:14 Lit the well of the living one who sees me
- Genesis 16:16 Lit Abram
Genesis 16
New Catholic Bible
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,
“Behold, you are pregnant:
you will bear a son
and call him Ishmael,
for the Lord has listened to you in your distress.
12 He will be a wild donkey of a man;
his hand will be against all
and the hands of all will be against him.
He will be opposed to all of his brothers.”
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.
Footnotes
- Genesis 16:1 The passage is Yahwist with additions from the Priestly tradition. By personal choice Abraham is monogamous and ready to die without sons rather than show disrespect to his wife Sarai (see Gen 15:2-3).
He does, however, yield to Sarai’s insistence that he follow an ancient practice that was acceptable in cases of barrenness and found a place in Mesopotamian codes of law. - Genesis 16:7 The angel of the Lord: in these ancient stories this is a conventional way of signifying sensible manifestations of God himself, “the God of the Vision” (v. 13).
- Genesis 16:13 The God of the Vision: in Hebrew, El-Roi. Hagar was amazed that she remained alive after seeing God—in contrast to the ancient belief that a person died upon seeing God (see Gen 32:31; Ex 20:19; Deut 4:33; Jdg 13:22).
Genesis 16
New International Version
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.
7 The angel of the Lord(N) found Hagar near a spring(O) in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur.(P) 8 And he said, “Hagar,(Q) slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”(R)
“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.”(S)
11 The angel of the Lord(T) also said to her:
“You are now pregnant
and you will give birth to a son.(U)
You shall name him(V) Ishmael,[a](W)
for the Lord has heard of your misery.(X)
12 He will be a wild donkey(Y) of a man;
his hand will be against everyone
and everyone’s hand against him,
and he will live in hostility
toward[b] all his brothers.(Z)”
13 She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,(AA)” for she said, “I have now seen[c] the One who sees me.”(AB) 14 That is why the well(AC) was called Beer Lahai Roi[d];(AD) it is still there, between Kadesh(AE) and Bered.
15 So Hagar(AF) bore Abram a son,(AG) and Abram gave the name Ishmael(AH) to the son she had borne. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old(AI) when Hagar bore him Ishmael.
Footnotes
- Genesis 16:11 Ishmael means God hears.
- Genesis 16:12 Or live to the east / of
- Genesis 16:13 Or seen the back of
- Genesis 16:14 Beer Lahai Roi means well of the Living One who sees me.
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