Genesis 16 (NIV)

Hagar and Ishmael

1. Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar;
2. so she said to Abram, “The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.” Abram agreed to what Sarai said.
3. So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife.
4. He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.
5. Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the LORD judge between you and me.”
6. “Your slave is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.
7. The angel of the LORD found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur.
8. And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?” “I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered.
9. Then the angel of the LORD told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.”
10. The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.”
11. The angel of the LORD also said to her: “You are now pregnant and you will give birth to 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 against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.”
13. She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.”
14. That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi ; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.
15. So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne.
16. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.

Genesis 16 recounts the story of Sarai (later Sarah) and Hagar, focusing on human impatience and God’s faithfulness. Sarai, unable to conceive a child, suggests that Abram (later Abraham) take her Egyptian servant Hagar as a surrogate to bear a child. Abram agrees, and Hagar becomes pregnant.

Once pregnant, Hagar begins to despise Sarai, which leads to tension and conflict between them. Sarai complains to Abram, and he allows her to handle the situation. Sarai mistreats Hagar, causing her to flee into the wilderness.

While in the desert, Hagar encounters an angel of the Lord, who comforts her and tells her to return to Sarai. The angel also promises that her son, Ishmael, will become the father of a great nation, though he will live in constant conflict with others.

Hagar obeys, returning to Abram and Sarai, and gives birth to Ishmael. Abram is 86 years old when Ishmael is born.

This chapter reveals themes of human frailty, the consequences of acting outside of God’s timing, and God’s mercy toward those who are marginalized or suffering. It sets the stage for future tensions between the descendants of Ishmael and Isaac.

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