Hagar and Ishmael
1 Now Abram’s wife Sarai had borne him no children, but she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar. 2So 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. 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.*
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.” 10Then 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: