Hagar and the Birth of Ishmael

Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne no children. She had an Egyptian servant named Hagar. Sarai told Abram to go to Hagar so that she might obtain children through her, and Abram listened to Sarai. Sarai gave Hagar to Abram, and Hagar conceived. After that, Hagar looked on Sarai with contempt, and Sarai complained to Abram.

Abram told Sarai that Hagar was in her hands. Sarai dealt harshly with Hagar, so Hagar fled. The angel of the Lord found her by a spring in the wilderness, on the way to Shur, and asked, "Hagar, Sarai's servant, where have you come from, and where are you going?"

Hagar answered that she was fleeing from Sarai. The angel of the Lord told her to return to her mistress and place herself under Sarai's hand. He also said that her offspring would be greatly multiplied, so many that they could not be counted.

Then the angel told Hagar that she was carrying a son. She was to name him Ishmael, because the Lord had heard her affliction. He also said the boy would live in conflict, with his hand against others and others' hands against him, living opposed to his brothers.

Hagar called the Lord who spoke to her, "the God who sees," because she marvelled that she had seen him and lived. The well was named Beer Lahai Roi. Hagar bore a son to Abram, Abram named him Ishmael, and Abram was eighty-six years old when Ishmael was born.