Genesis 16: Verse-by-Verse Commentary (with Videos)

16 verses · 2 video commentaries from 2 courses · Berean Standard Bible

¹Now Abram’s wife Sarai had borne him no children, but she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar.

²So Sarai said to Abram, “Look now, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Please go to my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.

³So after he had lived in Canaan for ten years, his wife Sarai took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to Abram to be his wife.

⁴And he slept with Hagar, and she conceived. But when Hagar realized that she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.

⁵Then Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be upon you! I delivered my servant into your arms, and ever since she saw that she was pregnant, she has treated me with contempt. May the LORD judge between you and me.”

⁶“Here,” said Abram, “your servant is in your hands. Do whatever you want with her.” Then Sarai treated Hagar so harshly that she fled from her.

⁷Now the angel of the LORD found Hagar by a spring of water in the desert—the spring along the road to Shur.

⁸“Hagar, servant of Sarai,” he said, “where have you come from, and where are you going?” “I am running away from my mistress Sarai,” she replied.

⁹So the angel of the LORD told her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her authority.”

¹⁰Then the angel added, “I will greatly multiply your offspring so that they will be too numerous to count.”

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.

¹²He will be a wild donkey of a man, and his hand will be against everyone, and everyone’s hand against him; he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.”

¹³So Hagar gave this name to the LORD who had spoken to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “Here I have seen the One who sees me!”

¹⁴Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi. It is located between Kadesh and Bered.

¹⁵And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne.

¹⁶Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to him.

Genesis 16 Verse Notes

Gen 16:1

Angels as Avatars of God in Early Biblical Texts

In the earliest biblical texts, such as Genesis, angels, particularly the 'angel of the Lord,' are not distinct beings with unique personalities. Instead, they function as avatars or manifestations of God, directly representing the divine presence and will on Earth. This blurring of identity means that encountering an angel is akin to encountering God himself.

Summarized by AI · Demons and Ghosts in the Bible · Lecture 2: Origins of the Demonic | Fallen Angels · watch the clip

Gen 16:11

Modern typesetting of biblical poetry is a convention, not original

Modern Bibles often set certain passages as poetry, like Genesis 15:15 or 16:11, by breaking up sentences into lines. However, this typesetting is a modern convention and varies among editors and translations. Ancient texts, such as traditional Torah scrolls or the Dead Sea Scrolls, do not typically present these passages as distinct poetic lines, with the Song of the Sea in Exodus 15 being a rare exception in the Torah.

Summarized by AI · The Hebrew Bible: Exploring the Literature of Ancient Israel · Lecture 21: Psalms | The Poetry of the People (?) · watch the clip