Genesis 16:16 - Printer Friendly

ESV: Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.

NIV: Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.

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

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

NLT: Abram was eighty-six years old when Ishmael was born.

KJV: And Abram was fourscore and six years old, when Hagar bare Ishmael to Abram.

NKJV: Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.

Genesis 16 ends by reporting Abram's age at the time Ishmael was born. God had promised to make of Abram a great nation and to give to him the land of Canaan. The initial promises had been given when Abram was already seventy-five years old (Genesis 12:4). The arrival of an heir had not happened, yet, and from a human perspective seemed more and more unlikely. Even ten years after God's further promises (Genesis 16:3), Abram and Sarai were childless.

And so, Abram, at Sarai's urging, attempted to move things along through scheming and struggling on their own. The result was both conflict and blessing, with the promise of more conflict and blessing for generations to come. Hagar immediately conceived a son, but was at odds with Sarai (Genesis 16:4–6). And the child born to Sarai's servant Hagar was not the child of Abram's covenant with God. Ishmael would be blessed by God, but his descendants would be forever in conflict with others, especially their "kinsmen:" the other descendants of Abram (Genesis 16:11–12).

So, at 86 years old, Abram would obtain a son, but not the son of promise. In fact, Abram will wait another 13 years before God would reveal the details of His plan for the next stage of Abram's life.

Genesis 16:1–16 demonstrates that God hears and sees and cares, but that He won't be rushed or manipulated into keeping His promises. Sarai and Abram attempt to receive God's promised child through their own scheme. In this case, by marrying Abram to an Egyptian servant girl. The resulting pregnancy, though, leads to harsh conflict and a surprising revelation from the Lord to Hagar. Her son Ishmael will not be the child of the promise, though he will become a great nation, and his people will live in conflict with everyone. Abram and Sarai will continue to wait for the arrival of their own son.

Sarai, tired of waiting for a child, convinces Abram to go to plan B. She gives her Egyptian slave girl to Abram as a wife, with the understanding that any children will belong to Sarai. Once Hagar is pregnant, however, conflict sets in. Sarai deals harshly with Hagar, and she flees alone into the wilderness. The Lord finds her there and commands her to return and submit to Sarai. However, the Lord also reveals that Hagar's son will have an uncountable number of offspring and that they will live in conflict with everyone. Hagar praises God as the one who sees, returns to Abram and Sarai, and Ishmael is soon born.

After formally establishing His covenant promises with Abram in the previous chapter, the Lord still has not given Abram and Sarai a child. Sarai convinces Abram to take her slave girl as a wife in hopes of getting a child that way. Abram agrees. Pregnancy and conflict soon follow. Sarai treats Hagar so harshly that the girl runs off alone into the wilderness. The Lord finds her and commands her to return and submit. He also reveals, however, that Hagar's child Ishmael will become the father of a great people who will live in conflict with everyone.

The book of Genesis establishes fundamental truths about God. Among these are His role as the Creator, His holiness, His hatred of sin, His love for mankind, and His willingness to provide for our redemption. We learn not only where mankind has come from, but why the world is in its present form. The book also presents the establishment of Israel, God's chosen people. Many of the principles given in other parts of Scripture depend on the basic ideas presented here in the book of Genesis. Within the framework of the Bible, Genesis explains the bare-bones history of the universe leading up to the captivity of Israel in Egypt, setting the stage for the book of Exodus.