The Holy Bible – Knox Translation
The Book of Genesis
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Chapter 16
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1
And still Abram’s wife Sarai bore him no children. But she had an Egyptian maid-servant, called Agar;
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and now she said to her husband, The Lord, as thou seest, denies me motherhood; betake thyself to this maid of mine, in the hope that I may at least have children through her means. So Abram consented to the wish of his wife,
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and she brought this Egyptian maid-servant of hers, Agar, and gave her to her husband as his mate, ten years after they had taken up their abode in the land of Chanaan.
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Abram, then, had knowledge of her, and she, finding herself with child, began to look on her mistress with scorn.
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And Sarai complained to Abram, I am being wronged, through thy fault; here is this maid-servant of mine, whom I bade thee take in thy arms, treating me scornfully, now that she has conceived. May the Lord do justice between us.
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To this, Abram made answer, Is she not in thy power, thy own maid-servant? Do what thou wilt with her. Thus it was that Sarai used her cruelly, and she took refuge in flight.

7
She was sitting by a well out in the wilderness, on the desert road to Sur, when an angel of the Lord found her.
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Whence comes Agar, he asked, and whither does she go, that was Sarai’s maid-servant? And she answered, It is from the threats of my mistress, Sarai, that I have fled.
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Then the angel of the Lord said to her, Go back to thy mistress, and submit to her will.
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Still will I grant increase, he said, to the race that shall spring from thee, till its numbers cannot be counted.
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And he added, Now thou art with child; it is a son that will be born to thee, and thou shalt call him Ismael (that is, God hears), in token that God has listened to thee in thy affliction.
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His shall be a nature none can tame; hating all and hated by all, he shall pitch his camp eastwards of his brethren.
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Thus the Lord spoke to her, and thus she named him, Thou art God, that hast looked on me; for indeed, she said, there was one who looked on me here, and I saw him as he left me.
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So she called that well, the Well of him who lives and looks on me; it is between Cades and Barad.
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Agar, then, bore a son to Abram, and called him Ismael;
16
Abram was eighty-six years old at the time of Ismael’s birth.