Gen 16, Gen 21 | ESV | STEP | Now Sarai , Abram’s wife , had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar .

Genesis 16

Sarai and Hagar

1 ^aNow Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was ^bHagar. 2 And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children ^{▼▼Hebrew be built up, which sounds like the Hebrew for children} by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. 3 So, after Abram ^dhad lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife. 4 And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, ^eshe looked with contempt on her mistress. ^{▼▼Hebrew her mistress was dishonorable in her eyes; similarly in verse 5} 5 And Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my servant to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May ^gthe Lord judge between you and me!” 6 But Abram said to Sarai, “Behold, your servant is in your power; do to her as you please.” Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her.

7 The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to ^hShur. 8 And he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.” 9 The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her.” 10 The angel of the Lord also said to her, ⁱ“I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.” 11 And the angel of the Lord said to her,

“Behold, you are pregnant
and shall bear a son.
You shall call his name Ishmael, ^{▼▼ Ishmael means God hears}
^kbecause the Lord has listened to your affliction.
12 He shall be ^la wild donkey of a man,
his hand against everyone
and everyone’s hand against him,
and he shall dwell ^mover against all his kinsmen.”
13 So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,” ^{▼▼Or You are a God who sees me} for she said, ^o“Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.” ^{▼▼Hebrew Have I really seen him here who sees me? or Would I have looked here for the one who sees me?} 14 Therefore the well was called ^qBeer-lahai-roi; ^{▼▼ Beer-lahai-roi means the well of the Living One who sees me} it lies between ^sKadesh and Bered.

15 And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.

Genesis 21

The Birth of Isaac

1 The Lord ^tvisited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah ^uas he had promised. 2 And Sarah ^vconceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age ^wat the time of which God had spoken to him. 3 Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, ^xIsaac. ^{▼▼ Isaac means he laughs} 4 And Abraham ^zcircumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, ^aaas God had commanded him. 5 ^abAbraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. 6 And Sarah said, ^ac“God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me.” 7 And she said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? ^adYet I have borne him a son in his old age.”

God Protects Hagar and Ishmael

8 And the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. 9 But Sarah ^aesaw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, ^aflaughing. ^{▼▼Possibly laughing in mockery} 10 So she said to Abraham, ^ah“Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.” 11 And the thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son. 12 But God said to Abraham, “Be not displeased because of the boy and because of your slave woman. Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for ^aithrough Isaac shall your offspring be named. 13 And I will make ^aja nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring.” 14 So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered in the wilderness of ^akBeersheba.

15 When the water in the skin was gone, she put the child under one of the bushes. 16 Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot, for she said, “Let me not look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. 17 And God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. 18 Up! Lift up the boy, and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make him into a great nation.” 19 Then ^alGod opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. And she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. 20 And God was with the boy, and he grew up. He lived in the wilderness ^amand became an expert with the bow. 21 He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

A Treaty with Abimelech

22 At that time ^anAbimelech and Phicol the commander of his army said to Abraham, ^ao“God is with you in all that you do. 23 Now therefore swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my descendants or with my posterity, but ^apas I have dealt kindly with you, so you will deal with me and with the land where you have sojourned.” 24 And Abraham said, “I will swear.”

25 When Abraham reproved Abimelech about a well of water that Abimelech’s servants ^aqhad seized, 26 Abimelech said, “I do not know who has done this thing; you did not tell me, and I have not heard of it until today.” 27 So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two men ^armade a covenant. 28 Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock apart. 29 And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs that you have set apart?” 30 He said, “These seven ewe lambs you will take from my hand, that this ^{▼▼Or you} may be a witness for me that I dug this well.” 31 Therefore ^atthat place was called Beersheba, ^{▼▼ Beersheba means well of seven or well of the oath} because there both of them swore an oath. 32 So they made a covenant at Beersheba. Then Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army rose up and returned to the land of the Philistines. 33 Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and ^avcalled there on the name of the Lord, ^awthe Everlasting God. 34 And Abraham sojourned many days in the land of the Philistines.