Chapter 16

And still Abram’s wife Sarai bore him no children. But she had an Egyptian maid-servant, called Agar;

and now she said to her husband, The Lord, as thou seest, denies me motherhood; betake thyself to this maid of mine, in the hope that I may at least have children through her means. So Abram consented to the wish of his wife,

and she brought this Egyptian maid-servant of hers, Agar, and gave her to her husband as his mate, ten years after they had taken up their abode in the land of Chanaan.

Abram, then, had knowledge of her, and she, finding herself with child, began to look on her mistress with scorn.

And Sarai complained to Abram, I am being wronged, through thy fault; here is this maid-servant of mine, whom I bade thee take in thy arms, treating me scornfully, now that she has conceived. May the Lord do justice between us.

To this, Abram made answer, Is she not in thy power, thy own maid-servant? Do what thou wilt with her. Thus it was that Sarai used her cruelly, and she took refuge in flight.

She was sitting by a well out in the wilderness, on the desert road to Sur, when an angel of the Lord found her.

Whence comes Agar, he asked, and whither does she go, that was Sarai’s maid-servant? And she answered, It is from the threats of my mistress, Sarai, that I have fled.

Then the angel of the Lord said to her, Go back to thy mistress, and submit to her will.

Still will I grant increase, he said, to the race that shall spring from thee, till its numbers cannot be counted.

And he added, Now thou art with child; it is a son that will be born to thee, and thou shalt call him Ismael (that is, God hears), in token that God has listened to thee in thy affliction.

His shall be a nature none can tame; hating all and hated by all, he shall pitch his camp eastwards of his brethren.

Thus the Lord spoke to her, and thus she named him, Thou art God, that hast looked on me; for indeed, she said, there was one who looked on me here, and I saw him as he left me.

So she called that well, the Well of him who lives and looks on me; it is between Cades and Barad.

Agar, then, bore a son to Abram, and called him Ismael;

Abram was eighty-six years old at the time of Ismael’s birth.