1   Abram's wife Sarai had borne him no children. Now she had an Egyptian slave-girl whose name was Hagar, 2   and she said to Abram, ‘You see that the Lord has not allowed me to bear a child. Take my slave-girl; perhaps I shall found a family through her.’ Abram agreed to what his wife said; 3   so Sarai, Abram's wife, brought her slave-girl, Hagar the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram as a wife. ^note 4   When this happened Abram had been in Canaan for ten years. He lay with Hagar and she conceived; and when she knew that she was with child, she despised her mistress. 5   Sarai said to Abram, ‘I have been wronged and you must answer for it. It was I who gave my slave-girl into your arms, but since she has known that she is with child, she has despised me. May the Lord see justice done between you and me.’ 6   Abram replied to Sarai, ‘Your slave-girl is in your hands; deal with her as you will.’ So Sarai ill-treated her and she ran away.

7   The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness on the way to Shur, 8   and he said, ‘Hagar, Sarai's slave-girl, where have you come from and where are you going?’ She answered, ‘I am running away from Sarai my mistress.’ 9   The angel of the Lord said to her, ‘Go back to your mistress and submit to her ill-treatment.’ 10   The angel also said, ‘I will make your descendants too many to be counted.’ 11   And the angel of the Lord said to her:

  ‘You are with child and will bear a son.
  You shall name him Ishmael, ^note
  because the Lord has heard of your ill-treatment.

Abraham and Isaac
   12   He shall be a man like the wild ass,
  his hand against every man
  and every man's hand against him;
  and he shall live at odds with ^note all his kinsmen.’

13   She called the Lord who was speaking to her by the name El-Roi, ^note for she said, ‘Have I indeed seen God and still live ^note after that vision?’ 14   That is why men call the well Beer-lahai-roi; ^note it lies between Kadesh and Bered. 15   Hagar bore Abram a son, and he named the child she bore him Ishmael. 16   Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael.

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