- 1
- Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had given him no children;
and she had a servant, a woman of Egypt whose name was Hagar.
- 2
- And Sarai said to Abram, See, the Lord has not let me have children;
go in to my servant, for I may get a family through her. And Abram did as Sarai said.
- 3
- So after Abram had been living for ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai took Hagar, her Egyptian servant, and gave her to Abram for his wife.
- 4
- And he went in to Hagar and she became with child, and when she saw that she was with child, she no longer had any respect for her master's wife.
- 5
- And Sarai said to Abram, May my wrong be on you: I gave you my servant for your wife and when she saw that she was with child, she no longer had any respect for me: may the Lord be judge between you and me.
- 6
- And Abram said, The woman is in your power;
do with her whatever seems good to you. And Sarai was cruel to her, so that she went running away from her.
- 7
- And an angel of the Lord came to her by a fountain of water in the waste land, by the fountain on the way to Shur.
- 8
- And he said, Hagar, Sarai's servant, where have you come from and where are you going?
And she said, I am running away from Sarai, my master's wife.
- 9
- And the angel said to her, Go back, and put yourself under her authority.
- 10
- And the angel of the Lord said, Your seed will be greatly increased so that it may not be numbered.
- 11
- And the angel of the Lord said, See, you are with child and will give birth to a son, to whom you will give the name Ishmael, because the ears of the Lord were open to your sorrow.
- 12
- And he will be like a mountain ass among men;
his hand will be against every man and every man's hand against him, and he will keep his place against all his brothers.
- 13
- And to the Lord who was talking with her she gave this name, You are a God who is seen;
for she said, Have I not even here in the waste land had a vision of God and am still living?
- 14
- So that fountain was named, Fountain of Life and Vision: it is between Kadesh and Bered.
- 15
- And Hagar gave birth to a child, the son of Abram, to whom Abram gave the name of Ishmael.
- 16
- Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael.
|