Bible Glide

Genesis 16

Genesis 16 Summary, Context, and Full Chapter

Genesis 16 shows the pain that can grow when God's promise feels delayed. Sarai and Abram take matters into their own hands, and the result is conflict in their household. Yet in the middle of that hardship, God sees Hagar, speaks to her, and gives hope about her son.

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What happens in Genesis 16?

Sarai, still childless after many years in Canaan, gives her Egyptian servant Hagar to Abram so she can build a family through her. Hagar conceives, and tension grows quickly between the two women. Sarai blames Abram, and Hagar is treated so harshly that she runs away. In the wilderness, the angel of the LORD meets Hagar, tells her to return, and promises that her offspring will become numerous. Hagar names the LORD as the God who sees her, then bears Abram a son, Ishmael.

This chapter follows God's covenant promises to Abram in Genesis 15 and shows the trouble that comes when human plans replace patient trust. It also sets up later family tensions that continue through the rest of Genesis. Genesis 17 will return to God's direct promise of a son through Sarai and the covenant sign of circumcision.

Themes to notice

  • Waiting and impatienceWhen God's timing seems slow, Sarai and Abram choose a shortcut that brings pain instead of peace.
  • God sees the afflictedThe LORD meets Hagar in the wilderness and shows care for someone pushed aside and mistreated.
  • Family conflictThe choices of Sarai, Abram, and Hagar create lasting tension in their household and beyond.

Questions for Genesis 16

  • Why do Sarai and Abram decide to act before waiting for God to fulfill his promise?
  • What stands out about the way God responds to Hagar in the wilderness?
  • How does this chapter show the cost of trying to solve a promise problem in human strength?

Read the full text of Genesis 16 below, then open it in the reader to highlight, take notes, or ask follow-up Bible questions. No account is required to read.

Genesis 16

Hagar and Ishmael

1Now Abram’s wife Sarai had borne him no children, but she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar.2So Sarai said to Abram, “Look now, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Please go to my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.3So after he had lived in Canaan for ten years, his wife Sarai took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to Abram to be his wife.4And he slept with Hagar, and she conceived. But when Hagar realized that she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.5Then Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be upon you! I delivered my servant into your arms, and ever since she saw that she was pregnant, she has treated me with contempt. May the LORD judge between you and me.”

6“Here,” said Abram, “your servant is in your hands. Do whatever you want with her.” Then Sarai treated Hagar so harshly that she fled from her.

7Now the angel of the LORD found Hagar by a spring of water in the desert—the spring along the road to Shur.8“Hagar, servant of Sarai,” he said, “where have you come from, and where are you going?” “I am running away from my mistress Sarai,” she replied.

9So the angel of the LORD told her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her authority.”10Then the angel added, “I will greatly multiply your offspring so that they will be too numerous to count.”

11The angel of the LORD proceeded:

“Behold, you have conceived and will bear a son.

And you shall name him Ishmael,

for the LORD has heard your cry of affliction.

12He will be a wild donkey of a man,

and his hand will be against everyone,

and everyone’s hand against him;

he will live in hostility

toward all his brothers.”

13So Hagar gave this name to the LORD who had spoken to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “Here I have seen the One who sees me!”14Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi. It is located between Kadesh and Bered.

15And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne.16Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to him.

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