Sarai Gives Hagar to Abram
1Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. She had an Egyptian servant named Hagar. 2Sarai said to Abram, “Look, Yahweh has kept me from having children. Please sleep with my servant — perhaps I can build a family through her.” Abram listened to Sarai. 3So Sarai, Abram’s wife, took her Egyptian servant Hagar — after Abram had lived in the land of Canaan for ten years — and gave her to her husband Abram as a wife. 4He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. When she saw that she was pregnant, she began to look down on her mistress. 5Then Sarai said to Abram, “This wrong done to me is your fault. I put my servant in your arms, and now that she sees she is pregnant, she looks down on me. Let Yahweh judge between you and me.”
Hagar Flees to the Wilderness
6Abram said to Sarai, “Your servant is in your hands; do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated her, and she fled from her. 7The angel of Yahweh found her by a spring in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. 8He 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 Yahweh said to her, “Go back to your mistress, and submit to her. 10I will greatly multiply your descendants; they will be too many to count. 11You are now pregnant, and you will bear a son. Name him Ishmael, for Yahweh has heard your suffering. 12He will be a wild donkey of a man — his hand against everyone, and everyone’s hand against him — and he will live in defiance of all his brothers.” 13She named Yahweh, who had spoken to her, “You are El Roi” — the God who sees me — for she said, “Have I truly seen him here and lived, after he saw me?” 14That is why the well is called Beer-lahai-roi — that is, the well of the Living One who sees me. It lies between Kadesh and Bered. 15Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram named the son Hagar had borne him Ishmael. 16Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to him.
