Genesis 16:1-16·~1 min

Hagar and Ishmael

Sarai turns to Hagar as a way to obtain children, and Abram agrees, but the arrangement breeds contempt, accusation, and harsh treatment. What begins as an attempt to secure a family leaves the household divided.

N¹ow Abram’s wife Sarai had borne him no children, but she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar. ²So Sarai said to Abram, “Look now, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Please go to my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family by her.” ³And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. So after he had lived in Canaan for ten years, his wife Sarai took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to Abram to be his wife. ⁴And he slept with Hagar, and she conceived. But when Hagar realized that she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. ⁵Then Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be upon you! I delivered my servant into your arms, and ever since she saw that she was pregnant, she has treated me with contempt. May the LORD judge between you and me.” ⁶“Here,” said Abram, “your servant is in your hands. Do whatever you want with her.” Then Sarai treated Hagar so harshly that she fled from her.

In the desert the angel of the LORD finds Hagar, questions her, and sends her back with a promise about her son and his future. Hagar answers by naming the LORD as the God who sees her, and the place receives a name from that encounter.

⁷Now the angel of the LORD found Hagar by a spring of water in the desert — the spring along the road to Shur. ⁸“Hagar, servant of Sarai,” he said, “where have you come from, and where are you going?” ⁹So the angel of the LORD told her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her authority.” ¹⁰Then the angel added, “I will greatly multiply your offspring so that they will be too numerous to count.” ¹¹The angel of the LORD proceeded: ¹²He will be a wild donkey of a man, ¹³So Hagar gave this name to the LORD who had spoken to her: “You are the God who sees me, ” for she said, “Here I have seen the One who sees me!” ¹⁴Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi. It is located between Kadesh and Bered.

Hagar bears Abram a son, and Abram names him Ishmael. The chapter ends by fixing the event in Abram's life with his age at the time.

¹⁵And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne. ¹⁶Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to him.

Section summarySarai gives Hagar to Abram in hope of building a family, but conception brings rivalry and mistreatment instead. In the wilderness the LORD meets Hagar, tells her to return, promises many descendants through her son, and the chapter closes with Ishmael's birth.

Role in the chapterThis chapter's only section traces one full movement from human planning and household fracture to divine seeing and promise. It shows how the pressure around the covenant promise spills into pain, while the LORD remains active toward the vulnerable within that strained story.