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16
Sarai gave Abram a slave woman to be another wife, and she gave birth to Ishmael
1 Up to that time, Abram's wife Sarai had not given birth to any children for Abram. But she had a female slave from Egypt, whose name was Hagar. 2 Sarai said to Abram, “Listen to me! Yahweh has not allowed me to become pregnant. So ◄sleep with/have sex with► [EUP] my slave Hagar. Perhaps she will bear children whom I can consider to be mine.” Abram agreed to do what Sarai said. 3 So Abram ◄slept with/had sex with► Hagar, his wife Sarai's slave from Egypt. This happened ten years after they went to live in Canaan land. Sarai gave Hagar to her husband to be his secondary wife. 4 He ◄slept with/had sex with► [EUP] Hagar and she became pregnant. When she realized that she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress Sarai. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “It is your fault! I put my servant into your arms, so that you could sleep with her [EUP]. Now she realizes that she is pregnant, and she despises me. I think Yahweh will punish you for doing this to me!” 6 So Abram said to Sarai, “Listen to me! She is your servant, so act towards her in the way you consider best.” Then Sarai started to mistreat her, so she ran away from Sarai. 7 An angel of Yahweh, found her as she was near a spring of water in the desert. It was the spring that was alongside the road to Shur. 8 He said to her, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?” She replied, “I have run away from Sarai, my mistress.” 9 The angel said, “Go back to your mistress and be under her authority [MTY]”. 10 The angel also said to her, “I will enable you to bear so many dependants that no one will be able to count them!” 11 The angel also said to her, “Listen to this! You are pregnant. You will give birth to a son. You must name him Ishmael, which means ‘God hears,’ because Yahweh has heard you crying because you feel so miserable. 12 But your son will be as uncontrollable as a wild donkey [MET]. He will oppose everyone, and everyone will oppose him [MTY]. He will live far away from his relatives [SYN].” 13 Then she realized that the angel was really Yahweh, so she said to herself, “◄It is difficult to believe that I have really seen the back of Yahweh, the one who sees me!/Have I really seen the back of Yahweh, the one who sees me?►” [RHQ] So she called him 'Yahweh, the one who sees me.' 14 That is why people call the well there 'Beer-Lahai-Roi,' which means, 'the well of the living one who sees us!' It is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.
15 So Hagar later gave birth to a son for Abram, and she gave to her son the name Ishmael. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar gave birth to Abram's son Ishmael.

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Note: The Old Testament in this translation is still being worked on, and is in draft form. Updates will be posted at eBible.org/t4t/.

© 2008-2017 Ellis W. Deibler, Jr.