The Book of
Genesis 16
16 verses≈ 3 min4 peopleBSB
Images are artistic interpretations.
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In this chapter
Where we are
- 1–11BeginningsCreation, fall, flood, Babel
- 12–24AbrahamThe call and the promiseChapter 16
- 25–36Isaac and JacobThe promise passed on
- 37–50JosephGod meant it for good
Hagar and Ishmael
Now Abram’s wife Sarai had borne him no children, but she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar.
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Sarai
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.
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. And he slept with Hagar, and she conceived. But when Hagar realized that she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.
Sarai
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.”
Abram
“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.
Reflect
When waiting gets long
Ten years in Canaan, and still no child. Sarai stopped waiting and made a plan: “perhaps I can build a family by her.” Abram went along. Within months there was contempt, blame and a servant running for her life. Is there a promise of God you’re tired of waiting for, or a shortcut you’re tempted to take? Write it down honestly.
Stylised map · locations approximate
On the map
On the road to Shur
Abram’s camp was near Hebron. Hagar fled south through the Negev, and the angel found her “by a spring of water in the desert—the spring along the road to Shur,” the wilderness on the way to Egypt. She was going home. Beer-lahai-roi lay “between Kadesh and Bered”; its exact site is unknown.
Now the angel of the LORD found Hagar by a spring of water in the desert—the spring along the road to Shur.
The angel of the LORD
“Hagar, servant of Sarai,” he said, “where have you come from, and where are you going?”
Hagar
“I am running away from my mistress Sarai,” she replied.
The angel of the LORD
So the angel of the LORD told her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her authority.” Then the angel added, “I will greatly multiply your offspring so that they will be too numerous to count.”
where have you come from, and where are you going?
Genesis 16:8
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.
0:09
Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain
Question
Quick question
The angel tells Hagar what to call her son, and why.
Why was the boy to be named Ishmael?
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.”
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!”
Genesis 16:13
Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to him.
Pray
The God who sees me
Hagar was a foreign servant with no say in her own life, and she ran until she had nowhere left to go. There God found her and called her by name. She answered, “You are the God who sees me.” Whoever you are and wherever you are running, He sees you too. Tell Him honestly where you have come from and where you are going, and thank Him that He hears.
You’ve experienced
Genesis 16
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A verse to carry with you
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!”
Genesis 16:13
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