THE BIRTH OF ISMAEL
CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Abram's wife Sarai had borne him no children. She had an Egyptian
	named Agar as maid.
And Sarai said to Abram, "The Lord has kept me from bearing children,"
	and said,
"Go in to my maid, perhaps I will get children through her," and Abram
listened to Sarai and went in to the maid and she conceived by him.
	But when
she was aware that she had conceived, she began to look with disdain
on her mistress. And Sarai said to Abram, "It is your fault that I bear 
	this pain!
I gave my maid to your embrace and when she knew she'd conceived,
	then she
looked on me with disdain. The Lord judge this matter between 
	you and me!"
Abram told her, "Your maid is in your power; do to her what seems
	good to you."
Then Sarai humiliated her and she fled from her and went out into
the desert, where an angel of the Lord found her beside a spring
on the road to Sur. And he said, "Agar, maid of Sarai, tell me what thing
has brought you here; where have you come from and where 
	are you going?" And she turned
and said, "I am fleeing from Sarai, my mistress." The angel said to her,
	"Return
to your mistress and submit to her authority." The angel of the Lord
	added, "I will
so multiply your posterity that it shall be too many to count," 
	and still
speaking, he told her, "You are with child, and shall bear a son
	you'll call Ismael,
because the Lord has heard of your humiliation. He shall  be
	a wild sort of man who shall dwell
apart, opposing even his own kinsmen; his hand shall be set
	against everyone,
and everyone's hand set against him as well - - thus shall be your son."
And she named the Lord who spoke to her, "You are the God of Vision,"
	for she said,
"Have I  really seen God and after the vision, remained alive
	and not dead?" 
Therefore, the well was called Beer-lahai-roi. It is between Cades 
	and Barad.
So Agar bore Abram a son and they called the son that Agar had had,
Ismael, for that means 'God hears.' And the spring means
	'the well where
one sees God and lives.' Abram was eighty-six when Agar did bear.


Continue