1 Now Abram’s wife Sarai had borne him no children, but she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar. 2 So Sarai said to Abram, “Look now, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Please go to my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. 3 So after he had lived in Canaan for ten years, his wife Sarai took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to Abram to be his wife. 4 And he slept with Hagar, and she conceived. But when Hagar realized that she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be upon you! I delivered my servant into your arms, and ever since she saw that she was pregnant, she has treated me with contempt. May the LORD judge between you and me.” 6 “Here,” said Abram, “your servant is in your hands. Do whatever you want with her.” Then Sarai treated Hagar so harshly that she fled from her. 7 Now the angel of the LORD found Hagar by a spring of water in the desert—the spring along the road to Shur. 8 “Hagar, servant of Sarai,” he said, “where have you come from, and where are you going?” “I am running away from my mistress Sarai,” she replied. 9 So the angel of the LORD told her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her authority.” 10 Then the angel added, “I will greatly multiply your offspring so that they will be too numerous to count.” 11 The angel of the LORD proceeded: “Behold, you have conceived and will bear a son. And you shall name him Ishmael, for the LORD has heard your cry of affliction. 12 He will be a wild donkey of a man, and his hand will be against everyone, and everyone’s hand against him; he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.” 13 So Hagar gave this name to the LORD who had spoken to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “Here I have seen the One who sees me!” 14 Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi. It is located between Kadesh and Bered. 15 And 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 Ishmael to him.
Genesis · Majority Standard Bible
Genesis 16 Majority Standard Bible
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
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)