Sarai's Plan, Hagar's Burden
Waiting fails, so Sarai gives Hagar to Abram; pregnancy turns to contempt, then to harsh treatment, and Hagar runs. A messenger finds her at a desert spring, sends her back with a promise about her son, and she names our Father the One who sees her.
16 1Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. She had an Egyptian servant named Hagar. 2Sarai told Abram, "Look, our Father has kept me from bearing children. Go sleep with my servant; maybe I'll build a family through her." Abram did as Sarai said. a a v2 In that culture a servant could bear a child on behalf of the household, and the child would be received as the family's own. 3After Abram had lived in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian servant Hagar and gave her to her husband Abram as a wife. 4He slept with Hagar; she conceived, and seeing she was pregnant, she despised her mistress. 5Sarai said to Abram, "My wrong is on you. I gave my servant into your arms; now she sees she's pregnant, she despises me. May our Father judge between me and you."
6Abram told Sarai, "Your servant is in your hands; do to her what seems good to you." Sarai mistreated her, and she fled from her presence.
7The messenger of our Father found Hagar at the wilderness spring, the spring on the way to Shur. b b v7 The messenger of our Father speaks as our Father himself — appearing to Hagar in form she can meet, hear, and answer.
8"Hagar, Sarai's servant," he said, "where have you come from, and where are you going?" "I'm running away from my mistress Sarai," she replied.
9"Go back to your mistress," the messenger of our Father told her, "and submit to her authority." 10The messenger of our Father told her, "I will multiply your descendants until they can't be counted." 11The messenger of our Father also said to her: "You are now pregnant and will give birth to a son. You will name him Ishmael, for I have heard of your misery. 12He will be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers."
13She named our Father who spoke to her, "You are El Roi—my God who sees me," for she said, "I have now seen the One who sees me." 14That is why the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; it lies between Kadesh and Bered.
15So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram named the son she had borne Ishmael. 16Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.
