Hagar and Ishmael
1Now Abram’s wife Sarai had borne him no children, but she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar. 2So Sarai said to Abram, “Look now, Yahweh 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. 3So 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. 4And he slept with Hagar, and she conceived. But when Hagar realized that she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.
- GEN 16:2[ARCHAEOLOGY]Nuzi tablets
5Then 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 Yahweh 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.
7Now the angel of Yahweh 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?”
- GEN 16:7[MIRACLE]The angel of Yahweh finds Hagar in the wilderness
“I am running away from my mistress Sarai,” she replied.
9So the angel of Yahweh told her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her authority.” 10Then the angel added, “I will greatly multiply your offspring so that they will be too numerous to count.”
11The angel of Yahweh proceeded:
“Behold, you have conceived and will bear a son.
And you shall name him Ishmael,
for Yahweh has heard your cry of affliction.
- GEN 16:11[PROPHECY]Ishmael would father a numerous people, dwelling east of his brothers, in conflict → GEN 25:12-18
12He 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.”
13So Hagar gave this name to Yahweh who had spoken to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “Here I have seen the One who sees me!” 14Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi. It is located between Kadesh and Bered.
- GEN 16:13[MIRACLE]The angel of Yahweh finds Hagar in the wilderness
15And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne. 16Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to him.
- GEN 16:15[NOTABLE]Ishmael is born. Arabs have long seen Ishmael as their ancestor. Islamic tradition says Muhammad, who started Islam around AD 610, came from Ishmael's family line, most often through his son Kedar in 25:13. Muslim historians agree Muhammad descended from a man named Adnan, but even they do not agree on the names between Adnan and Ishmael. The Bible itself never names Muhammad.