1Now Sarai had borne no children for Abram. She had an Egyptian slave girl named Hagar,
2so Sarai said to Abram, “Please listen. Since Yahweh has kept me childless, go sleep with my maidservant. Perhaps through her I can build you a family.” Abram listened and did what Sarai asked.
3Abram had already lived ten years in the land of Canaan when his wife Sarai took her Egyptian slave girl Hagar and gave her to Abram to be his second wife.
4He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. Once Hagar realized she was pregnant, she belittled Sarai and despised her.
5So Sarai went to Abram and said, “It’s totally your fault that Hagar despises me—and you’re not standing up for me! I gave my slave girl to your embrace, and when she found out she was pregnant, she despised me. May Yahweh judge between us who is in the right!”
6Abram responded, “She’s your slave girl under your authority, so do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai cruelly mistreated Hagar, who then ran away from her.
7The angel of Yahweh encountered Hagar by a spring in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur.
8He asked her, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and what are you doing here?”
She replied, “I’m running away from Sarai, my mistress.”
9The angel of Yahweh told her, “You have to go back to your mistress and humbly submit to her.”
10The angel added, “I will greatly multiply your descendants until no one can count them.”
11Yahweh’s angel continued, “You are now pregnant, and soon you will give birth to a son. You will name him Ishmael, for Yahweh has heard your cries of distress.
12Your son will have a wild nature that no one can tame. He will be hostile toward everyone, and everyone will be hostile toward him; and he will live at odds with all his kinsmen.”
13After her encounter with Yahweh, Hagar called him by a special name, “You are the God of My Seeing,” for she said, “Oh my, did I just see God and live to talk about it?”
14That is why the well is called Spring of the Living One Who Watches Over Me. The well is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.
15Hagar returned and bore Abram a son, whom Abram named Ishmael.
16Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael.
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