Journey
Hagar, seen by God
Follow an Egyptian servant from Sarai's tent to two springs in the wilderness, where God finds her, hears her son and opens her eyes.
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Opening stop: Sarai's Egyptian maid, Genesis 16:3
Abram was seventy-five when he left Haran (Genesis 12:4), so after ten years in Canaan he is about eighty-five. Hagar is now called his wife, yet he still says thy maid when he speaks of her to Sarai, and hands her back to Sarai's control. The angel will soon call what Sarai did Hagar's affliction (Genesis 16:11). Genesis 15:13 uses afflict for what Abram's own seed would suffer as strangers in a land not theirs, and Exodus 1:11 for Egypt afflicting Israel. Here it is the Egyptian who is afflicted.
And Sarai Abram’s wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife.
King James Version
Sarai, who has no children, gives her Egyptian handmaid Hagar to Abram as a wife. Hagar conceives and begins to despise Sarai. After Sarai complains, Abram leaves Hagar in her authority; Sarai treats her harshly, and Hagar flees. The angel of the Lord finds her by a spring on the way to Shur. He directs her to return and submit, promises descendants beyond counting, and names her coming son Ishmael because the Lord has heard her affliction. He also describes a future marked by conflict for the son. In the King James wording cited here, Hagar calls the Lord the God who sees her. The chapter ends with Ishmael's birth when Abram is eighty-six.
Continue the journey
This journey has 9 stops. The opening stop is free. Premium opens the rest of the guided path, and every Scripture chapter stays free to read.