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Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar. 2 So Sarai said to Abram, “Look, the Lord has kept me from bearing children. Please, go in to my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her.”
And Abram agreed to what Sarai said. 3 So Abram’s wife Sarai took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar, and gave her to her husband Abram as a wife for him. This took place after Abram had been living in the land of Canaan for ten years. 4 He went in to Hagar, and she conceived.
When she knew she was pregnant, she began treating her mistress with contempt. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for my suffering! I put my maidservant in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me.”
6 Abram replied to Sarai, “Your maidservant is in your hands; do to her as you think best.” Then Sarai treated Hagar harshly, and she fled from her.
7 The Angel of the Lord found Hagar by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. 8 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 replied.
9 Then the Angel of the Lord said to her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” 10 Then the Angel of the Lord also said to her, “I will multiply your descendants so greatly they will be too numerous to count.”
11 Then the Angel of the Lord said to her:
“Behold, you are now with child,
and you will have a son.
You shall name him Ishmael,
for the Lord has heard of your misery.
12 He will be a wild donkey of a man;
his hand will be against everyone,
and everyone’s hand will be against him.
He will live in hostility
toward all his brothers.”
13 So she gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: ‘The God Who Sees’, for she said, “Have I really seen the One who sees me?” 14 That is why the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; it is located between Kadesh and Bered.
15 So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son Hagar had borne. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to him.