Thematic Bible
Genesis 16:1 (show verse)
Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. She had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar.
Genesis 16:2 (show verse)
She said to Abram: Jehovah has kept me from having children. Go sleep with my maidservant. Perhaps I can build a family through her. Abram agreed to what Sarai said.
Genesis 16:3 (show verse)
After Abram lived in Canaan ten years, Sarai, his wife, gave her Egyptian maidservant Hagar to her husband to be his wife.
Genesis 16:4 (show verse)
Abram had intercourse with Hagar, and she conceived. When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.
Genesis 16:5 (show verse)
Then Sarai said to Abram: You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my servant in your arms; she knows she is pregnant and she despises me. May Jehovah judge between you and me.
Genesis 16:6 (show verse)
Your servant is in your hands, Abram said. Do with her whatever you think best. Then Sarai mistreated Hagar. So she ran away from her.
Genesis 16:7 (show verse)
The angel of Jehovah found Hagar near a spring in the desert. It was the spring that is beside the road to Shur.
Genesis 16:8 (show verse)
He said: Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going? I am running away from my mistress Sarai, she answered.
Genesis 16:9 (show verse)
Then the angel of Jehovah told her: Go back to your mistress and submit to her.
Genesis 16:10 (show verse)
I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count.
Genesis 16:11 (show verse)
Jehovah's angel also said: You are now with child and you will have a son. You shall name him Ishmael (means: God hears). Jehovah has heard of your misery.
Genesis 16:12 (show verse)
He (Ishmael) will be a wild donkey of a man. His hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand against him. He will live in hostility toward all his brothers.
Genesis 16:13 (show verse)
She called the name of Jehovah, who spoke to her: You are the God who sees me, for she said, 'I have not seen the one who sees me.'
Genesis 16:14 (show verse)
That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi (Well of the Living One Who Sees Me). It is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.
Genesis 16:15 (show verse)
Hagar bore Abram a son. Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne.
Genesis 16:16 (show verse)
Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.