Chapter 16

Now Sarai, the wife of Abram, had not conceived children. But, having an Egyptian handmaid named Hagar,

she said to her husband: “Behold, the Lord has closed me, lest I give birth. Enter to my handmaid, so that perhaps I may receive sons of her at least.” And when he agreed to her supplication,

she took Hagar the Egyptian, her handmaid, ten years after they began to live in the land of Canaan, and she gave her to her husband as a wife.

And he entered to her. But when she saw that she had conceived, she despised her mistress.

And Sarai said to Abram: “You have acted unfairly against me. I gave my handmaid into your bosom, who, when she saw that she had conceived, held me in contempt. May the Lord judge between me and you.”

Abram responded to her by saying, “Behold, your handmaid is in your hand to treat as it pleases you.” And so, when Sarai afflicted her, she took flight.

And when the Angel of the Lord had found her, near the fountain of water in the wilderness, which is on the way to Shur in the desert,

he said to her: “Hagar, handmaid of Sarai, where have you come from? And where will you go?” And she answered, “I flee from the face of Sarai, my mistress.”

And the Angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and humble yourself under her hand.”

And again he said, “I will multiply your offspring continuously, and they will not be numbered because of their multitude.”

But thereafter he said: “Behold, you have conceived, and you will give birth to a son. And you shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has heard your affliction.

He will be a wild man. His hand will be against all, and all hands will be against him. And he will pitch his tents away from the region of all his brothers.”

Then she called upon the name of the Lord who had spoken to her: “You are the God who has seen me.” For she said, “Certainly, here I have seen the back of the one who sees me.”

Because of this, she called that well: ‘The well of the one who lives and who sees me.’ The same is between Kadesh and Bered.

And Hagar gave birth to a son for Abram, who called his name Ishmael.

Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael for him.