But Sarai, Abram's wife, had no children. So Sarai took her servant, an Egyptian woman named Hagar,
and gave her to Abram so she could bear his children. "The LORD has kept me from having any children," Sarai said to Abram. "Go and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have children through her." And Abram agreed.
So Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian servant and gave her to Abram as a wife. (This happened ten years after Abram first arrived in the land of Canaan.)
So Abram slept with Hagar, and she became pregnant. When Hagar knew she was pregnant, she began to treat her mistress Sarai with contempt.
Then Sarai said to Abram, "It's all your fault! Now this servant of mine is pregnant, and she despises me, though I myself gave her the privilege of sleeping with you. The LORD will make you pay for doing this to me! "
Abram replied, "Since she is your servant, you may deal with her as you see fit." So Sarai treated her harshly, and Hagar ran away.
The angel of the LORD found Hagar beside a desert spring along the road to Shur.
The angel said to her, "Hagar, Sarai's servant, where have you come from, and where are you going?I am running away from my mistress," she replied.
Then the angel of the LORD said, "Return to your mistress and submit to her authority."
The angel added, "I will give you more descendants than you can count."
And the angel also said, "You are now pregnant and will give birth to a son. You are to name him Ishmael, for the LORD has heard about your misery.
This son of yours will be a wild one--free and untamed as a wild donkey! He will be against everyone, and everyone will be against him. Yes, he will live at odds with the rest of his brothers."
Thereafter, Hagar referred to the LORD, who had spoken to her, as "the God who sees me," for she said, "I have seen the One who sees me!"
Later that well was named Beer-lahairoi, and it can still be found between Kadesh and Bered.
So Hagar gave Abram a son, and Abram named him Ishmael.