Genesis 16 Free Bible Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
1 Sarai, Abram's wife, hadn't been able to have any children for him. However, she owned a female Egyptian slave named Hagar,
1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, bore him no children. She had a servant, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.
2 so Sarai said to Abram, “Please listen to me. The Lord hasn't let me have any children. So please go and sleep with my slave. Maybe I can have a family through her.” Abram agreed to what Sarai had suggested.
2 Sarai said to Abram, “See now, Yahweh has restrained me from bearing. Please go in to my servant. It may be that I will obtain children by her.” Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.
3 So Sarai, Abram's wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband as his wife. Abram had been living in the land of Canaan for ten years when this happened.
3 Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to Abram her husband to be his wife.
4 Abram slept with Hagar and she became pregnant. When she realized she was pregnant, she treated her mistress with contempt.
4 He went in to Hagar, and she conceived. When she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes.
5 Then Sarai complained to Abram, “What I'm suffering is all your doing! I gave you my servant to sleep with, and now that she knows she's pregnant, she treats me with contempt. May the Lord decide who's at fault—you or me!”
5 Sarai said to Abram, “This wrong is your fault. I gave my servant into your bosom, and when she saw that she had conceived, she despised me. May Yahweh judge between me and you.”
6 “Listen, she's your slave!” Abram replied. “You can do whatever you want to her.” Sarai treated Hagar so badly that she ran away.
6 But Abram said to Sarai, “Behold, your maid is in your hand. Do to her whatever is good in your eyes.” Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her face.
7 The angel of the Lord met Hagar at a spring in the desert—the spring on the road to Shur.
7 Yahweh’s angel found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain on the way to Shur.
8 He asked her, “Hagar, Sarai's slave—where have you come from, and where are you going?” “I'm running away from my mistress Sarai,” she replied.
8 He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s servant, where did you come from? Where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from the face of my mistress Sarai.”
9 “Go back to your mistress and do what she tells you,” the angel of the Lord told her.
9 Yahweh’s angel said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hands.”
10 Then he continued, “I will give you many, many descendants—in fact they'll be so many they can't be counted.”
10 Yahweh’s angel said to her, “I will greatly multiply your offspring, that they will not be counted for multitude.”
11 The angel of the Lord went on to tell her: “Listen! You're pregnant, and you will have a son. You are to name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard how you've suffered.
11 Yahweh’s angel said to her, “Behold, you are with child, and will bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because Yahweh has heard your affliction.
12 He'll be a wild donkey kind of man—he will fight with everyone, and everyone will fight with him. He will forever be fighting with his relatives.”
12 He will be like a wild donkey among men. His hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him. He will live opposed to all of his brothers.”
13 From then on Hagar called the Lord who spoke to her, “You are the God who sees me,” because she said, “Here I saw the one who sees me.”
13 She called the name of Yahweh who spoke to her, “You are a God who sees,” for she said, “Have I even stayed alive after seeing him?”
14 That's why the well is called “the Well of the Living One who Sees Me.” It's still there, between Kadesh and Bered.
14 Therefore the well was called Beer Lahai Roi. Behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered.
15 Hagar gave birth to a son for Abram. Abram named his son Ishmael.
15 Hagar bore a son for Abram. Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael.
16 Abram was 86 when Hagar had Ishmael.
16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.
People & places in this chapter
From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.
People
Abraham
Called by God, he left home in faith to become the father of a chosen people.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 12–25
Hagar
Sarah's Egyptian servant who bore Ishmael and met God in the wilderness.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 16, 21
Ishmael
Abraham's son by Hagar, blessed by God to become a great nation.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 16; 17:20; 21; 25:12–18
Cross references (15)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Galatians 4:24; Genesis 12:16; Genesis 15:2–3; Genesis 21:9–10; Genesis 21:12
- 2 Genesis 18:10; Genesis 3:17; Exodus 21:4; Genesis 25:21; Genesis 20:18
- 3 Genesis 16:5; Genesis 12:4–5; 2 Samuel 5:13; Genesis 25:6; Genesis 30:9
- 4 2 Samuel 6:16; Proverbs 30:23; 1 Samuel 1:6–8; 1 Corinthians 13:4–5; Proverbs 30:20–21
- 5 Genesis 31:53; Exodus 5:21; Luke 10:40–41; Psalm 7:8; 1 Samuel 24:12–15
- 6 Jeremiah 38:5; Job 2:6; Proverbs 14:29; Psalm 106:41–42; 1 Peter 3:7
- 7 Exodus 15:22; Genesis 25:18; Genesis 21:17; Proverbs 15:3; Genesis 31:11
- 8 Genesis 3:9; Genesis 4:10; Ecclesiastes 10:4; Jeremiah 2:17–18; Ephesians 6:5–8
- 9 1 Peter 5:5–6; Ecclesiastes 10:4; Ephesians 5:21; 1 Peter 2:18–25; Ephesians 6:5–6
- 10 Genesis 17:20; Psalm 83:6–7; Genesis 21:18; Genesis 21:13; Genesis 25:12–18
- 11 Exodus 2:23–24; Exodus 3:7; Isaiah 7:14; Genesis 17:19; Genesis 41:51–52
- 12 Genesis 25:18; Genesis 21:20; Job 39:5–8; Genesis 27:40; Job 11:12
- 13 Psalm 139:1–12; Genesis 32:30; Proverbs 15:3; Proverbs 5:21; Genesis 16:7
- 14 Genesis 25:11; Genesis 24:62; Numbers 13:26; Genesis 21:31; Genesis 14:7
- 15 Genesis 25:12; Genesis 28:9; Genesis 17:18; 1 Chronicles 1:28; Genesis 17:25–26
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
… Sarah his wife, and had gratified her will and not his own,--had received her without seeking, had gone in to her without being attached, had impregnated without loving her,--for he says, "Behold thy maid is in thy hands: do to her as it pleaseth thee;" a man able to use women as a man should,--his wife temperately, his handmaid compliantly, …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)
"And Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her handmaid, after Abraham had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife." And of Keturah, whom he took after Sarah's departure, we read, "Then again Abraham took a wife, whose name was Keturah." Lo!
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)
… neck: for when, after being humiliated, she departed from her mistress, an angel met her, and said to her, "What is the matter with thee, Hagar, Sarah's handmaid?" When she complained of her mistress, what did she hear from the angel? "Return to thy mistress." It is for this that she is afflicted, that she may return; and would that …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 7 (1888)