Sarai and Hagar
1aNow Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was bHagar. 2And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children1 by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. 3So, after Abram chad lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife. 4And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, dshe looked with contempt on her mistress.2 5And Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my servant to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May ethe Lord judge between you and me!” 6But Abram said to Sarai, “Behold, your servant is in your power; do to her as you please.” Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her.
7The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to fShur. 8And he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.” 9The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her.” 10The angel of the Lord also said to her, g“I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.” 11And the angel of the Lord said to her,
“Behold, you are pregnant
and shall bear a son.
You shall call his name Ishmael,3
hbecause the Lord has listened to your affliction.
12He shall be ia wild donkey of a man,
his hand against everyone
and everyone's hand against him,
and he shall dwell jover against all his kinsmen.”
13So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,”4 for she said, k“Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.”5 14Therefore the well was called lBeer-lahai-roi;6 it lies between mKadesh and Bered.
15And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. 16Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.
Footnotes
- 1 16:2 Hebrew be built up, which sounds like the Hebrew for children
- 2 16:4 Hebrew her mistress was dishonorable in her eyes; similarly in verse 5
- 3 16:11 Ishmael means God hears
- 4 16:13 Or You are a God who sees me
- 5 16:13 Hebrew Have I really seen him here who sees me? or Would I have looked here for the one who sees me?
- 6 16:14 Beer-lahai-roi means the well of the Living One who sees me
The Promised Kingdom
Genesis 1:1–50:26 Sermon • Includes Transcript • 40:54 • ID: 2382The Partial Kingdom: God’s People — Part One
Genesis 1:1–50:26 Sermon • Includes Transcript • 29:13 • ID: 2383The Perished Kingdom — Part Two
Genesis 1:1–50:26 Sermon • Includes Transcript • 38:05 • ID: 2379The Perished Kingdom — Part One
Genesis 1:1–50:26 Sermon • Includes Transcript • 34:16 • ID: 2377Faith in the Waiting Room
Genesis 16:1–16 Sermon • Includes Transcript • 41:21 • ID: 1082Venturing in Faith
A Study on the Life of Abraham Genesis 11:1–22:24 Series • ID: 22101Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.