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Genesis · Literal Standard Version

Genesis 16 Literal Standard Version

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About LSV
  • Protestant
  • OT: Masoretic Hebrew
  • NT: Majority (Byzantine) text
  • Protestant (66 books)
  • Very literal
  • 2020
  • CC BY-SA 4.0

Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings

1 And Sarai, Abram’s wife, has not borne to him, and she has a handmaid, an Egyptian, and her name [is] Hagar; 2 and Sarai says to Abram, “Now behold, YHWH has restrained me from bearing, please go in to my handmaid; perhaps I am built up from her”; and Abram listens to the voice of Sarai. 3 And Sarai, Abram’s wife, takes Hagar the Egyptian, her handmaid, at the end of the tenth year of Abram’s dwelling in the land of Canaan, and gives her to her husband Abram—to him for a wife, 4 and he goes in to Hagar, and she conceives, and she sees that she has conceived, and her mistress is lightly esteemed in her eyes. 5 And Sarai says to Abram, “My violence [is] for you; I have given my handmaid into your bosom, and she sees that she has conceived, and I am lightly esteemed in her eyes; YHWH judges between me and you.” 6 And Abram says to Sarai, “Behold, your handmaid [is] in your hand, do to her that which is good in your eyes”; and Sarai afflicted her, and she flees from her presence. 7 And the Messenger of YHWH finds her by the fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way [to] Shur, 8 and He says, “Hagar, Sarai’s handmaid, from where have you come, and to where do you go?” And she says, “From the presence of Sarai, my mistress, I am fleeing.” 9 And the Messenger of YHWH says to her, “Return to your mistress, and humble yourself under her hands”; 10 and the Messenger of YHWH says to her, “Multiplying I multiply your seed, and it is not numbered from multitude”; 11 and the Messenger of YHWH says to her, “Behold you [are] conceiving, and bearing a son, and have called his name Ishmael, for YHWH has listened to your affliction; 12 and he is a wild-donkey man, his hand against everyone, and everyone’s hand against him—and before the face of all his brothers he dwells.” 13 And she calls the Name of YHWH who is speaking to her, “You [are], O God, my beholder”; for she said, “Even here have I looked behind my beholder?” 14 Therefore has one called the well, “The well of the Living One, my beholder”; behold, between Kadesh and Bered. 15 And Hagar bears a son to Abram; and Abram calls the name of his son, whom Hagar has borne, Ishmael; 16 and Abram [is] a son of eighty-six years in Hagar’s bearing 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

    Father of nations

    Called by God, he left home in faith to become the father of a chosen people.

    Cited in the guide: Genesis 12–25

  • Hagar

    Servant, mother of Ishmael

    Sarah's Egyptian servant who bore Ishmael and met God in the wilderness.

    Cited in the guide: Genesis 16, 21

  • Ishmael

    Abraham's firstborn

    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. 1 Galatians 4:24; Genesis 12:16; Genesis 15:2–3; Genesis 21:9–10; Genesis 21:12
  2. 2 Genesis 18:10; Genesis 3:17; Exodus 21:4; Genesis 25:21; Genesis 20:18
  3. 3 Genesis 16:5; Genesis 12:4–5; 2 Samuel 5:13; Genesis 25:6; Genesis 30:9
  4. 4 2 Samuel 6:16; Proverbs 30:23; 1 Samuel 1:6–8; 1 Corinthians 13:4–5; Proverbs 30:20–21
  5. 5 Genesis 31:53; Exodus 5:21; Luke 10:40–41; Psalm 7:8; 1 Samuel 24:12–15
  6. 6 Jeremiah 38:5; Job 2:6; Proverbs 14:29; Psalm 106:41–42; 1 Peter 3:7
  7. 7 Exodus 15:22; Genesis 25:18; Genesis 21:17; Proverbs 15:3; Genesis 31:11
  8. 8 Genesis 3:9; Genesis 4:10; Ecclesiastes 10:4; Jeremiah 2:17–18; Ephesians 6:5–8
  9. 9 1 Peter 5:5–6; Ecclesiastes 10:4; Ephesians 5:21; 1 Peter 2:18–25; Ephesians 6:5–6
  10. 10 Genesis 17:20; Psalm 83:6–7; Genesis 21:18; Genesis 21:13; Genesis 25:12–18
  11. 11 Exodus 2:23–24; Exodus 3:7; Isaiah 7:14; Genesis 17:19; Genesis 41:51–52
  12. 12 Genesis 25:18; Genesis 21:20; Job 39:5–8; Genesis 27:40; Job 11:12
  13. 13 Psalm 139:1–12; Genesis 32:30; Proverbs 15:3; Proverbs 5:21; Genesis 16:7
  14. 14 Genesis 25:11; Genesis 24:62; Numbers 13:26; Genesis 21:31; Genesis 14:7
  15. 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).

  1. Quotes verse 16:6 Augustine of Hippo, The City of God (Book XVI, Chapters 25–27)

    … 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)

  2. Quotes verse 16:3 Augustine of Hippo, The City of God (Book XVI, Chapters 33–36)

    "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)

  3. Quotes verse 16:9 Augustine of Hippo, Tractates on the Gospel of John (Chapter II — 23-25; III. 1-5)

    … 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)