Chapter 16

And Sarai, Abram`s wife, hath not borne to him, and she hath an handmaid, an Egyptian, and her name is Hagar;

and Sarai saith unto Abram, `Lo, I pray thee, Yehovah hath restrained me from bearing, go in, I pray thee, unto my handmaid; perhaps I am built up from her;` and Abram hearkeneth to the voice of Sarai.

And Sarai, Abram`s wife, taketh Hagar the Egyptian, her handmaid, at the end of the tenth year of Abram`s dwelling in the land of Canaan, and giveth her to Abram her husband, to him for a wife,

and he goeth in unto Hagar, and she conceiveth, and she seeth that she hath conceived, and her mistress is lightly esteemed in her eyes.

And Sarai saith unto Abram, `My violence is for thee; I -- I have given mine handmaid into thy bosom, and she seeth that she hath conceived, and I am lightly esteemed in her eyes; Yehovah doth judge between me and thee.`

And Abram saith unto Sarai, `Lo, thine handmaid is in thine hand, do to her that which is good in thine eyes;` and Sarai afflicted her, and she fleeth from her presence.

And a messenger of Yehovah findeth her by the fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur,

and he saith, `Hagar, Sarai`s handmaid, whence hast thou come, and whither dost thou go?` and she saith, `From the presence of Sarai, my mistress, I am fleeing.`

And the messenger of Yehovah saith to her, `Turn back unto thy mistress, and humble thyself under her hands;`

and the messenger of Yehovah saith to her, `Multiplying I multiply thy seed, and it is not numbered from multitude;`

and the messenger of Yehovah saith to her, `Behold thou art conceiving, and bearing a son, and hast called his name Ishmael, for Yehovah hath hearkened unto thine affliction;

and he is a wild-ass man, his hand against every one, and every one`s hand against him -- and before the face of all his brethren he dwelleth.`

And she calleth the name of Yehovah who is speaking unto her, `Thou art, O God, my beholder;` for she said, `Even here have I looked behind my beholder?`

therefore hath one called the well, `The well of the Living One, my beholder;` lo, between Kadesh and Bered.

And Hagar beareth to Abram a son; and Abram calleth the name of his son, whom Hagar hath borne, Ishmael;

and Abram is a son of eighty and six years in Hagar`s bearing Ishmael to Abram.