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Sarai and Hagar

¹ Now ^(C1)Sarai, Abram's wife, had not borne him any children, and she had ^(C2)an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar.² So Sarai said to Abram, "See here, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. ^(C1)I am asking you to go in to the bed of my maid so that she may bear you a child; perhaps I will ^(F1)obtain children by her." And Abram listened to Sarai and did as she said.³ After Abram had lived in the land of Canaan ^(C1)ten years, Abram's wife Sarai took Hagar the Egyptian maid, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his secondary wife.⁴ He went in to the bed of Hagar, and she conceived; and when she realized that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress regarding Sarai as insignificant because of her infertility.⁵ Then Sarai said to Abram, "^(C1)May the responsibility for the wrong done to me by the arrogant behavior of Hagar be upon you. I gave my maid into your arms, and when she realized that she had conceived, I was despised and looked on with disrespect. ^(C2)May the LORD judge who has done right between you and me."⁶ But Abram said to Sarai, "Look, your maid is entirely in your hands and subject to your authority; do as you please with her." So Sarai treated her harshly and humiliated her, and ^(C1)Hagar fled from her.

⁷ But ^ORD (<i>YHWH)</i>" in Scripture. The Hebrew word for "angel" means "messenger" (an angel of God is a special messenger from God who speaks for and is closely identified with Him) and context determines whether the messenger is an angel or a human. The same is true for Greek, and the word "angel" is an English form (transliteration) of the Gr <i>aggelos</i>. The <i>Angel of the L<i>ORD</i></i> can be a special case, however. Many Bible scholars believe that this <i>Angel</i> may be a theophany, that is, a physical manifestation of God, in which case the word <i>Angel</i> is capitalized. The <i>Angel of the L<i>ORD</i></i> may, based on context, be the pre-incarnate Christ, the Son of God.">(F1)^(C1)the Angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, on the road to Egypt by way of ^(C2)Shur.⁸ And He said, "Hagar, Sarai's maid, ^(C1)where did you come from and where are you going?" And she said, "I am running away from my mistress Sarai."⁹ The Angel of the LORD said to her, "Go back to your mistress, and submit ^(F1)humbly to her authority."¹⁰ Then the ^(C1)Angel of the LORD said to her, "^(C2)I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be too many to count."¹¹ The Angel of the LORD continued,

"Behold, you are with child,
And you will bear a son;
And you shall name him Ishmael (God hears),
Because ^(C1)the LORD has heard and paid attention to your persecution (suffering).

¹² "He (Ishmael) will be a ^(C1)wild donkey of a man;
His hand will be against every man continually fighting
And every man's hand against him;
And he will dwell ^(C2)in defiance of all his brothers."

¹⁵ So Hagar gave birth to Abram's son; and Abram named his son, to whom Hagar gave birth, ^(F1)Ishmael (God hears).¹⁶ Abram was ^(C1)eighty-six years old when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael.