Genesis 16
New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

The Birth of Ishmael

1Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, bore him no children. She had an Egyptian slave-girl whose name was Hagar, 2and Sarai said to Abram, “You see that the Lord has prevented me from bearing children; go in to my slave-girl; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. 3So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her slave-girl, and gave her to her husband Abram as a wife. 4He went in to Hagar, and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. 5Then Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my slave-girl to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the Lord judge between you and me!” 6But Abram said to Sarai, “Your slave-girl is in your power; do to her as you please.” Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she ran away from her.

7The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. 8And he said, “Hagar, slave-girl of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am running away from my mistress Sarai.” 9The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit to her.” 10The angel of the Lord also said to her, “I will so greatly multiply your offspring that they cannot be counted for multitude.” 11And the angel of the Lord said to her,

“Now you have conceived and shall bear a son;
    you shall call him Ishmael,[a]
    for the Lord has given heed to your affliction.
12He shall be a wild ass of a man,
with his hand against everyone,
    and everyone’s hand against him;
and he shall live at odds with all his kin.”

13So she named the Lord who spoke to her, “You are El-roi”;[b] for she said, “Have I really seen God and remained alive after seeing him?”[c] 14Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi;[d] it lies between Kadesh and Bered.

15Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. 16Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him[e] Ishmael.

Footnotes

  1. Genesis 16:11 That is God hears
  2. Genesis 16:13 Perhaps God of seeing or God who sees
  3. Genesis 16:13 Meaning of Heb uncertain
  4. Genesis 16:14 That is the Well of the Living One who sees me
  5. Genesis 16:16 Heb Abram
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.





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