[1] Sarai, Abram's wife, was not able to have children. She owned an Egyptian slave named Hagar. [2] So Sarai said to Abram, "The LORD has kept me from having children. Why don't you sleep with my slave? Maybe I can build a family through her." Abram agreed with Sarai. [3] After Abram had lived in Canaan for ten years, Abram's wife Sarai took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife. [4] He slept with Hagar, and she became pregnant. When Hagar realized that she was pregnant, she began to be disrespectful to Sarai, her owner. [5] So Sarai complained to Abram, "I'm being treated unfairly! And it's your fault! I know that I gave my slave to you, but now that she's pregnant, she's being disrespectful to me. May the LORD decide who is right-you or me." [6] Abram answered Sarai, "Here, she's your slave. Do what you like with her." Then Sarai mistreated Hagar so much that she ran away. [7] The Messenger of the LORD found her by a spring in the desert, the spring on the way to Shur. [8] He said, "Hagar, Sarai's slave, where have you come from, and where are you going?" She answered, "I'm running away from my owner Sarai." [9] The Messenger of the LORD said to her, "Go back to your owner, and place yourself under her authority." [10] The Messenger of the LORD also said to her, "I will give you many descendants. No one will be able to count them because there will be so many." [11] Then the Messenger of the LORD said to her, "You are pregnant, and you will give birth to a son. You will name him Ishmael [God Hears], because the LORD has heard your cry of distress. [12] He will be as free and wild as an untamed donkey. He will fight with everyone, and everyone will fight with him. He will have conflicts with all his relatives." [13] Hagar named the LORD, who had been speaking to her, "You Are the God Who Watches Over Me." She said, "This is the place where I watched the one who watches over me." [14] This is why the well is named Beer Lahai Roi [Well of the Living One Who Watches Over Me]. It is still there between Kadesh and Bered. [15] Hagar gave birth to Abram's son. Abram named him Ishmael. [16] Abram was 86 years old when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael.
