And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne.
Parallel translations
- WEB Hagar bore a son for Abram. Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael.
- KJV And Hagar bare Abram a son: and Abram called his son’s name, which Hagar bare, Ishmael.
- NKJV So Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael.
- NASB So Hagar bore a son to Abram; and Abram named his son, to whom Hagar gave birth, Ishmael.
- NLT So Hagar gave Abram a son, and Abram named him Ishmael.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram named him Ishmael. The promised birth came to pass as foretold.
Overview
Hagar returns and gives birth, and Abram names the child Ishmael, the name God had appointed. That Abram uses the divinely given name suggests Hagar told him of her encounter. Yet this son, though loved and blessed, is not the child of promise, and the narrative keeps the reader waiting for Isaac, the true heir of the covenant.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Gen 25:12This is the account of Abraham’s son Ishmael, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s maidservant, bore to Abraham.
- Gen 37:27Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay a hand on him; for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And they agreed.
- Gen 17:20As for Ishmael, I have heard you, and I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He will become the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation.
- Gen 17:18And Abraham said to God, “O that Ishmael might live under Your blessing!”
- 1 Chr 1:28The sons of Abraham were Isaac and Ishmael.
- Gen 17:25–26and his son Ishmael was thirteen;
- Gen 16:11The 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.
- Gen 28:9Esau went to Ishmael and married Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Abraham’s son Ishmael, in addition to the wives he already had.
- Gen 21:9–21But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking her son,
- Gen 25:9His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah near Mamre, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite.
- Gal 4:22–23For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman.
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Christ at the center
From the first promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent (3:15), through Abraham's blessing to all nations and Judah's coming ruler, Genesis sows every seed that flowers in Christ — the true offspring, the better Adam, the ram caught for Isaac.
How Genesis 16:15 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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