1-3 Abram and Sarai had lived in Canaan for 10 years and Sarai still did not have a baby. She said to Abram, “I think God has stopped me from having my own baby. But I have a plan, here is my Egyptian working girl, Hagar. I want you to take her as a second wife.[a] She belongs to me and so if she has a baby, then that baby will be mine.” 4 Abram did what Sarai wanted and slept with Hagar. When Hagar knew that she was going to have a baby, she started to rubbish Sarai. 5 Sarai said to Abram, “I blame you for this trouble. I gave Hagar to you, and now that she is having a baby she is rubbishing me. She hates me, and it's your fault. I want the Lord to tell us who is right, you or me.”

6 But Abram said to Sarai, “Hagar belongs to you. Do whatever you want with her.”

So Sarai gave Hagar such a hard time, she ran away.

7 The Lord's angel found Hagar sitting at a waterhole near the road that went to a town called Shur. 8 The angel said to her, “Hagar, I know that you belong to Sarai, so why are you sitting out here in the dry country. Where are you going?”

Hagar answered, “I am running way from Sarai.”

9 The angel said to her, “I want you to go back to Sarai. She owns you, and so you must do what she says.” 10 Then the angel said, “I am going to make the family that will come from you so big that no one will be able to count them. 11 You are going to have a baby boy. I want you to name him Ishmael, which means God listens. You see he has heard about your trouble. 12 But I have to tell you, Ishmael will be like a wild donkey. He will be against everybody and everybody will be against him. He will always fight with his brothers.”

13 Hagar heard what the angel said, and she knew that the message came from the Lord. So she named him, You are the God who sees me. And she said to herself, “I have seen the back of God. He is the one who sees me.” 14 From that time, the waterhole where the angel talked to Hagar, was called Beer La-hai Roy. In that language it means Waterhole that belongs to the living God who sees me. That waterhole is between 2 places called Kadesh and Bered.

15 Later on, Hagar had Abram's son and Abram named the baby Ishmael. 16 Abram was 86 years old when Ishmael was born.[b]

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