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Genesis 16

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Sarai Gives Hagar to Abram 1–4

1
Now Sarai Abram's wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. ​
2
And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai. ​
3
And Sarai Abram's wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife. ​
4
And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived: and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes.

Conflict and Hagar’s Flight 5–6

5
And Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be upon thee: I have given my maid into thy bosom; and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes: the LORD judge between me and thee. ​
6
But Abram said unto Sarai, Behold, thy maid is in thy hand; do to her as it pleaseth thee. And when Sarai dealt hardly with her, she fled from her face. ​

The Angel of the LORD Appears to Hagar 7–14

7
And the angel of the LORD found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur. ​
8
And he said, Hagar, Sarai's maid, whence camest thou? and whither wilt thou go? And she said, I flee from the face of my mistress Sarai.
9
And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands. ​
10
And the angel of the LORD said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude.
11
And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction. ​
12
And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren. ​
13
And she called the name of the LORD that spake unto her, Thou God seest me: for she said, Have I also here looked after him that seeth me? ​
14
Wherefore the well was called Beerlahairoi; behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered.

The Birth of Ishmael 15–16

15
And Hagar bare Abram a son: and Abram called his son's name, which Hagar bare, Ishmael.
16
And Abram was fourscore and six years old, when Hagar bare Ishmael to Abram. ​

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

Study Notes for Genesis 16

Verse 1

Sarai Abram’s wife bare him no children — Gen 11:30 had said it already: ‘Sarai was barren; she had no child.’ Hagar is Sarai’s shiphchah, a female servant, and an Egyptian. Her name is given here; the ‘maidservants’ Abram received in Egypt (Gen 12:16) are the nearest earlier mention. Paul names her as ‘Agar’ in Gal 4:24–25.

Verse 2

the LORD hath restrained me from bearing — ‘Restrained’ is atsar, to shut up, the verb of Gen 20:18, ‘the LORD had fast closed up all the wombs’. ‘Obtain children’ is literally ‘be built’ (banah); Rachel uses the same word of Bilhah (Gen 30:3). ‘Hearkened to the voice of Sarai’ is the expression of Gen 3:17.

Verse 3

after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan — Abram was seventy-five when he left Haran (Gen 12:4) and is eighty-six at Ishmael’s birth (v.16). Sarai ‘gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife’: Hagar is called a wife here, though she remains Sarai’s maid (v.8). The LORD’s promise of an heir came in Gen 15:4.

Verse 5

the LORD judge between me and thee — ‘Wrong’ is chamas, violence or injury. ‘Despised’ (qalal) is to be made light of, the word of v.4. Sarai’s appeal is the one David makes to Saul, ‘The LORD judge between me and thee’ (1 Sam 24:12), and Laban asks ‘the God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor’ to ‘judge betwixt us’ (Gen 31:53).

Verse 6

dealt hardly with her — Anah, to afflict or humble, the verb of Gen 15:13 for what Abram’s seed would suffer, and of Ex 1:11, ‘to afflict them with their burdens’. Abram says ‘thy maid is in thy hand’; ‘as it pleaseth thee’ is literally ‘the good in thine eyes’. Hagar ‘fled’ (barach) ‘from her face’.

Verse 7

the angel of the LORD found her — The first ‘angel of the LORD’ in the Bible. The word is mal’ak, messenger. He finds her at a spring ‘in the way to Shur’, which Gen 25:18 places ‘before Egypt’. He speaks as the LORD, ‘I will multiply thy seed exceedingly’ (v.10), and Hagar ‘called the name of the LORD that spake unto her’ (v.13).

Verse 9

Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself — ‘Submit’ is anah, the same verb as ‘dealt hardly’ in v.6: she is to go back under the hand that afflicted her. The command is joined at once to a promise (v.10), ‘I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude’.

Verse 11

shalt call his name Ishmael — Yishma’el is ‘God will hear’, and the reason is given: ‘the LORD hath heard thy affliction’ (oni). The LORD says the same of Israel in Egypt: ‘I have surely seen the affliction of my people … and have heard their cry’ (Ex 3:7). The son is named before his birth, as Isaac is in Gen 17:19.

Verse 12

a wild man — Literally a wild ass of a man: pere is the onager, which Job 39:5–8 describes as sent out free, with the wilderness for its house. ‘In the presence of all his brethren’ is the phrase used at his death: ‘he died in the presence of all his brethren’ (Gen 25:18).

Verse 13

Thou God seest me — Hagar ‘called the name of the LORD that spake unto her’ El roi, God of seeing. She asks whether she has ‘looked after him that seeth me’ (the same root ra’ah). The well is named Beerlahairoi (v.14), and Isaac later dwelt by it (Gen 25:11).

Verse 16

fourscore and six years old — Abram was seventy-five at Haran (Gen 12:4). At ninety-nine the LORD appears again (Gen 17:1), when Ishmael is thirteen (Gen 17:25), and Isaac is born when Abraham is a hundred (Gen 21:5). The births are separated by fourteen years.