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Genesis

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Hagar and the Birth of Ishmael

Chapter 16

1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had not given birth to any children, but she had an Egyptian servant named Hagar. 2 So Sarai said to Abram, “Since the Lord has prevented me from having children, please sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have a family by her.”⁠ Abram did what Sarai told him.⁠ 3 So after Abram had lived in Canaan for ten years, Sarai, Abram’s wife, gave Hagar, her Egyptian servant, to her husband⁠ to be his wife.⁠ 4 He slept with Hagar, and she became pregnant. Once Hagar realized she was pregnant, she despised Sarai. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “You have brought this wrong on me! I gave my servant into your embrace, but when she realized that she was pregnant, she despised me. May the Lord judge between you and me!” 6 Abram said to Sarai, “Since your servant is under your authority, do to her what is right in your eyes22.”⁠ Then Sarai treated Hagar harshly, so she ran away from Sarai.⁠ 7 The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring of water in the wilderness—the spring that is along the road to Shur.⁠ 8 He said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”⁠ She replied, “I’m running away from my mistress, Sarai.” 9 Then the angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her authority. 10 I will greatly multiply your descendants,” the angel of the Lord added, “so that they will be too numerous to count.”⁠ 11 Then the angel of the Lord said to her, “You are now pregnant and are about to give birth to a son. You are to name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard your painful groans.⁠ 12 He will be a wild donkey of a man. He will be hostile to everyone, and everyone will be hostile to him. He will live away from his brothers.” 13 So Hagar named the Lord who spoke to her, “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “Here I have seen one who sees me!”⁠ 14 That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi. (It is located between Kadesh and Bered.) 15 So Hagar gave birth to Abram’s son, whom Abram named Ishmael.⁠ 16 (Now Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael.)

Texts in conversation

Compare Genesis 3:9 and Genesis 16:8

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

In Genesis 16, the angel of God, and perhaps God himself in an earlier version, asks Hagar where she is, a question similar to the one God asks Adam in Genesis 3. This reflects one of many elements in the Hagar narrative that parallel Adam.

Passages

Genesis 3:9

Hebrew Bible
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God moving about in the orchard at the breezy time of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the orchard. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 The man replied, “I heard you moving about in the orchard, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis

Genesis 16:8

Hebrew Bible
7 The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring of water in the wilderness—the spring that is along the road to Shur. 8 He said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?” She replied, “I’m running away from my mistress, Sarai.” 9 Then the angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her authority.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis

References

"... For the first time, Hagar is addressed by name and is called “Sarai’s maid.” This may have surprised Hagar. How could a stranger have known about her identity? The reader, knowing that the stranger is the angel of the LORD, is not surprised. But the question that follows, “Where have you come from?” although sounding quite natural to Hagar, strikes the reader as rhetorical. It is as unnecessary as the LORD asking Adam “where are you?” (3:9) or Cain “where is Abel?” (4:9). This is, in fact, the first time the LORD has asked someone their whereabouts since Gen 4, and it emphasizes the parallel between this story and those earlier ones. But whereas Adam and Cain prevaricated, Hagar is perfectly honest in her answer ..."
Gordon J. Wenham, Word Biblical Commentary: Genesis 16-50 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994), 97.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Genesis 3:9 and Genesis 16:8

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