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The Birth of Ishmael

¹ Now Abram’s wife Sarai had not borne a child to him, but she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar.² So Sarai said to Abram, “Look now, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Please go to my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family by her.” Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.³ So after he had lived in Canaan for ten years, his wife Sarai took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to Abram to be his wife.

⁴ And he slept with Hagar, and she conceived. But when Hagar realized that she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress^(a).⁵ Then Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be upon you! I delivered my servant into your arms, and ever since she saw that she was pregnant, she has treated me with contempt. May the LORD judge between you and me.”⁶ “Here,” said Abram, “your servant is in your hands. Do whatever you want with her.” Then Sarai treated Hagar so harshly that she fled from her.

⁷ Now the Angel of the LORD found Hagar by a spring of water in the desert—the spring along the road to Shur.⁸ “Hagar, servant of Sarai,” He said, “where have you come from, and where are you going?” “I am running away from my mistress Sarai,” she replied.⁹ So the Angel of the LORD told her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her authority.”

¹⁰ Then the Angel added, “I will greatly multiply your offspring so that they will be too numerous to count.”¹¹ The Angel of the LORD proceeded: “Behold, you have conceived and will bear a son. And you shall name him Ishmael^(a), for the LORD has heard your cry of affliction.¹² He will be a wild donkey of a man, and his hand will be against everyone, and everyone’s hand against him; he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.”¹³ So Hagar gave this name to the LORD who had spoken to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “Here I have seen the One who sees me!”¹⁴ Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi^(a). It is located between Kadesh and Bered.

¹⁵ And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne.¹⁶ Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to him.