Genesis 16

Hagar and Ishmael

1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar;
2 so she said to Abram, “The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.” Abram agreed to what Sarai said.
3 So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife.
4 He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.
5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the LORD judge between you and me.”
6 “Your slave is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.
7 The angel of the LORD found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur.
8 And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?” “I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered.
9 Then the angel of the LORD told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.”
10 The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.”
11 The angel of the LORD also said to her: “You are now pregnant and you will give birth to a son. You shall name him Ishmael,[a]for the LORD has heard of your misery.
12 He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward[b] all his brothers.”
13 She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen[c] the One who sees me.”
14 That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi[d] ; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.
15 So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne.
16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.

Images for Genesis 16

Cross References 35

  • 1. S Genesis 11:29
  • 2. S Genesis 11:30; Luke 1:7,36; Galatians 4:24-25
  • 3. Genesis 21:9; Genesis 24:61; Genesis 29:24,29; Genesis 31:33; Genesis 46:18
  • 4. ver 3-4,8,15; Genesis 21:14; Genesis 25:12
  • 5. Genesis 29:31; Genesis 30:2
  • 6. Genesis 19:32; Genesis 30:3-4,9-10
  • 7. S Genesis 12:5
  • 8. S Genesis 12:4
  • 9. S ver 1
  • 10. Genesis 30:1; 1 Samuel 1:6
  • 11. Genesis 31:53; Exodus 5:21; Judges 11:27; 1 Samuel 24:12,15; 1 Samuel 26:10,23; Psalms 50:6; Psalms 75:7
  • 12. Joshua 9:25
  • 13. Genesis 31:50
  • 14. ver 11; Genesis 21:17; Genesis 22:11,15; Genesis 24:7,40; Genesis 31:11; Genesis 48:16; Exodus 3:2; Exodus 14:19; Exodus 23:20,23; Exodus 32:34; Exodus 33:2; Numbers 22:22; Judges 2:1; Judges 6:11; Judges 13:3; 2 Samuel 24:16; 1 Kings 19:5; 2 Kings 1:3; 2 Kings 19:35; Psalms 34:7; Zechariah 1:11; S Acts 5:19
  • 15. ver 14; Genesis 21:19
  • 16. Genesis 20:1; Genesis 25:18; Exodus 15:22; 1 Samuel 15:7; 1 Samuel 27:8
  • 17. S ver 1
  • 18. S Genesis 3:9
  • 19. S Genesis 13:16">Genesis 13:16; Genesis 13:16">Genesis 13:16; Genesis 17:20
  • 20. S ver 7; S Acts 5:19
  • 21. S Genesis 3:15
  • 22. Genesis 12:2-3; Genesis 18:19; Nehemiah 9:7; Isaiah 44:1; Amos 3:2; Matthew 1:21; Luke 1:13,31
  • 23. Genesis 17:19; Genesis 21:3; Genesis 37:25,28; Genesis 39:1; Judges 8:24
  • 24. Genesis 29:32; Genesis 31:42; Exodus 2:24; Exodus 3:7,9; Exodus 4:31; Numbers 20:16; Deuteronomy 26:7; 1 Samuel 9:16
  • 25. Job 6:5; Job 11:12; Job 24:5; Job 39:5; Psalms 104:11; Jeremiah 2:24; Hosea 8:9
  • 26. Genesis 25:18
  • 27. Psalms 139:1-12
  • 28. Genesis 32:30; Genesis 33:10; Exodus 24:10; Exodus 33:20,23; Numbers 12:8; Judges 6:22; Judges 13:22; Isaiah 6:5
  • 29. S ver 7
  • 30. Genesis 24:62; Genesis 25:11
  • 31. S Genesis 14:7
  • 32. S ver 1
  • 33. Genesis 21:9; Galatians 4:22
  • 34. Genesis 17:18; Genesis 25:12; Genesis 28:9
  • 35. S Genesis 12:4

Footnotes 4

  • [a]. "Ishmael" means "God hears."
  • [b]. Or "live to the east" / "of"
  • [c]. Or "seen the back of"
  • [d]. "Beer Lahai Roi" means "well of the Living One who sees me."

Genesis 16 Commentaries

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