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,

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.