1 Now Sarai Avram’s wife had not borne him a child. But she had an Egyptian slave-girl named Hagar;
2 so Sarai said to Avram, “Here now,Adonaihas kept me from having children; so go in and sleep with my slave-girl. Maybe I’ll be able to have children through her.” Avram listened to what Sarai said.
3 It was after Avram had lived ten years in the land of Kena‘an that Sarai Avram’s wife took Hagar the Egyptian, her slave-girl, and gave her to Avram her husband to be his wife.
4 Avram had sexual relations with Hagar, and she conceived. But when she became aware that she was pregnant, she looked on her mistress with contempt.
5 Sarai said to Avram, “This outrage being done to me is your fault! True, I gave my slave-girl to you to sleep with; but when she saw that she was pregnant, she began holding me in contempt. MayAdonaidecide who is right — I or you!”
6 However, Avram answered Sarai, “Look, she’s your slave-girl. Deal with her as you think fit.” Then Sarai treated her so harshly that she ran away from her.
7 The angel ofAdonaifound her by a spring in the desert, the spring on the road to Shur,
8 and said, “Hagar! Sarai’s slave-girl! Where have you come from, and where are you going?” She answered, “I’m running away from my mistress Sarai.”
9 The angel ofAdonaisaid to her, “Go back to your mistress, and submit to her authority.”
10 The angel ofAdonaisaid to her, “I will greatly increase your descendants; there will be so many that it will be impossible to count them.”
11 The angel ofAdonaisaid to her, “Look, you are pregnant, and you will give birth to a son. You are to call him Yishma‘el [God pays attention] becauseAdonaihas paid attention to your misery.
12 He will be a wild donkey of a man, with his hand against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, living his life at odds with all his kinsmen.”
13 So she namedAdonaiwho had spoken with her El Ro’i [God of seeing], because she said, “Have I really seen the One who sees me [and stayed alive]?”
14 This is why the well has been called Be’er-Lachai-Ro’i [well of the one who lives and sees]; it lies between Kadesh and Bered.
15 Hagar bore Avram a son, and Avram called the son whom Hagar had borne Yishma‘el.
16 Avram was 86 years old when Hagar bore Yishma‘el to Avram.