Genesis 16

1 Now Abram’s wife Sarai had borne him no children, but she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar. 2 So 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. 3 So 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. 4 And he slept with Hagar, and she conceived. But when Hagar realized that she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. 5 Then 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. 7 Now 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. 9 So the angel of the LORD told her, “ Return to your mistress and submit to her authority.” 10 Then the angel added, “ I will greatly multiply your offspring so that they will be too numerous to count.” 11 The 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. 12 He 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.” 13 So 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!” 14 Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi. It is located between Kadesh and Bered. 15 And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to him.

✦ What the text says

## Summary Sarai, childless, gives her Egyptian maidservant Hagar to Abram as a secondary wife; Hagar conceives and the relationship between the two women deteriorates, leading Hagar to flee into the wilderness. There the *mal'akh YHWH* ("angel/messenger of Yahweh", H4397H+H3068G) finds her, instructs her to return and submit, and delivers a promise about her son's future name, character, and descendants. Hagar names God "El Roi" and later bears Abram a son, Ishmael, when Abram is eighty-six. ## Key words - *'ibbaneh* ("I will be built up", H1129) — niphal imperfect, first person; a passive/reflexive form built on the same root as *ben* ("son"), so Sarai's statement plays on the idea of being "built" through offspring. - *te'anneha* ("she afflicted her", H6031B) — piel (intensive) narrative form; the intensive stem marks deliberate, forceful mistreatment rather than a mild action. - *yishma' YHWH* ("Yahweh has listened", H8085G) — qal perfect, completed action; this verb root underlies the name *Yishma'el* ("Ishmael", H3458G), making the etymology of the name explicit in the text itself. - *hit'anni* ("humble yourself", H6031B) — hithpael imperative, same root as *te'anneha* above; the reflexive stem shifts the sense from "being afflicted by another" to "submitting oneself." - *'El Ro'i* ("God of seeing", H0410G + H7210) — construct noun phrase naming the deity by the act of "seeing," echoed in the following clause with the participle *ro'i* ("the one who sees me", H7200G). ## What the text says The chapter is built around narrative-vav chains (*va-yomer*, *va-tomer*, *va-tikkach*, etc.) that carry the plot forward in rapid succession, typical of Hebrew narrative prose. Direct speech is framed by these narrative verbs, and the dialogue itself uses first-person perfects (*natati*, "I put", H5414G; *ra'iti*, "I have seen", H7200G) to mark completed, personally-owned actions, giving Sarai's and Hagar's statements a tone of testimony rather than mere report. The wordplay between *'ibbaneh* ("I will be built up") and *ben* ("son") in verse 2, and between *shama'* ("he listened/heard") and *Yishma'el* in verses 11 and 15, ties the personal names and events directly to the verbal roots used earlier in the episode — a feature visible only in the Hebrew consonantal structure, not necessarily preserved in translation. Similarly, the repetition of the root *'anah* ("afflict/humble", H6031B) across the piel (Sarai's action) and hithpael (the angel's command) forms a grammatical contrast between what is done *to* Hagar and what she is told to do *to herself*. ## Differences between versions In verse 5, the Hebrew has Sarai invoke *YHWH* ("Yahweh") as judge, while the LXX renders this as *ho theos* ("God") rather than *kyrios*. In verse 7, the LXX adds *tou theou* ("of God") to "angel of the Lord," a phrase not present in the Hebrew *mal'akh YHWH*. In verse 13, the Hebrew *'El Ro'i* ("God of seeing") is rendered in the LXX as *ho theos ho ephidōn me* ("the God who looked upon me")

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.