So Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael.
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.
- BSB And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne.
- 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 25:12Now this is the history of the generations of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s servant, bore to Abraham.
- Gen 37:27Come, and let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites, and not let our hand be on him; for he is our brother, our flesh.” His brothers listened to him.
- Gen 17:20As for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He will become the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation.
- Gen 17:18Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!”
- 1 Chr 1:28The sons of Abraham: Isaac and Ishmael.
- Gen 17:25–26Ishmael, his son, was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.
- Gen 16:11Yahweh’s angel said to her, “Behold, you are with child, and will bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because Yahweh has heard your affliction.
- Gen 28:9Esau went to Ishmael, and took, besides the wives that he had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebaioth, to be his wife.
- Gen 21:9–21Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking.
- Gen 25:9Isaac and Ishmael, his sons, buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron, the son of Zohar the Hittite, which is before Mamre,
- Gal 4:22–23For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the servant, and one 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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