Genesis 16

reviewed Worded for an eighth-grade reader; the reading is the Translation's. Read the Translation with its notes.

1 Abram's wife Sarai had not had any children by him. She had an Egyptian maid named Hagar. 2 Sarai said to Abram, "Look, the LORD has kept me from having children. Please sleep with my maid. Perhaps I will be built up through her." And Abram listened to Sarai's voice. 3 Abram had lived in the land of Canaan for ten years. Then his wife Sarai took her Egyptian maid Hagar and gave her to her husband Abram as his wife. 4 He slept with Hagar, and she became pregnant. When she saw that she was pregnant, she began to look down on her mistress. 5 Sarai said to Abram, "My violence is on you! I put my maid in your arms, and she saw that she was pregnant, and I became small in her eyes. May the LORD judge between me and you." 6 Abram said to Sarai, "Look, your maid is in your power. Do to her whatever seems good to you." Then Sarai treated her harshly, and she ran away from her. 7 The messenger of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness. It was the spring on the road to Shur. 8 He said, "Hagar, Sarai's maid, where have you come from, and where are you going?" She said, "I am running away from my mistress Sarai."

9 The messenger of the LORD said to her, "Go back to your mistress, and put up with her harsh treatment." 10 The messenger of the LORD also said to her, "I will greatly increase your offspring. They will be too many to count." 11 The messenger of the LORD said to her, "Look, you are pregnant. You will give birth to a son, and you will name him Ishmael, because the LORD has heard your suffering. 12 He will be a wild donkey of a man. His hand will be against everyone, and everyone's hand will be against him. He will make his home in the face of all his brothers." 13 She gave a name to the LORD who spoke to her: "You are El Roi." For she said, "Have I really seen here, after the one who sees me?" 14 That is why the well is called Beer-lahai-roi. It is between Kadesh and Bered. 15 Hagar gave birth to a son for Abram. Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. 16 Abram was 86 years old when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael for him.