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Genesis 16:10 Bible in Basic English (BBE)

10 And the angel of the Lord said, Your seed will be greatly increased so that it may not be numbered.

Cross Reference

Genesis 17:20 BBE

As for Ishmael, I have given ear to your prayer: truly I have given him my blessing and I will make him fertile and give him great increase; he will be the father of twelve chiefs, and I will make him a great nation.

Genesis 25:12-18 BBE

Now these are the generations of Ishmael, the son of Abraham, whose mother was Hagar the Egyptian, the servant of Sarah: These are the names of the sons of Ishmael by their generations: Ishmael's first son was Nebaioth; then Kedar and Adbeel and Mibsam And Mishma and Dumah and Massa, Hadad and Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah: These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names in their towns and their tent-circles; twelve chiefs with their peoples. And the years of Ishmael's life were a hundred and thirty-seven: and he came to his end, and was put to rest with his people. And their country was from Havilah to Shur which is east of Egypt: they took their place to the east of all their brothers.

Genesis 22:15-18 BBE

And the voice of the angel of the Lord came to Abraham a second time from heaven, Saying, I have taken an oath by my name, says the Lord, because you have done this and have not kept back from me your dearly loved only son, That I will certainly give you my blessing, and your seed will be increased like the stars of heaven and the sand by the seaside; your seed will take the land of those who are against them; And your seed will be a blessing to all the nations of the earth, because you have done what I gave you orders to do.

Genesis 21:13 BBE

And I will make a nation of the son of your servant-woman, because he is your seed.

Psalms 83:6-7 BBE

The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites; Moab and the Hagarites; Gebal and Ammon and Amalek; the Philistines and the people of Tyre;

1 Timothy 6:16 BBE

Who only has life for ever, living in light to which no man may come near; whom no man has seen or is able to see: to whom be honour and power for ever. So be it.

Acts 7:30-38 BBE

At the end of forty years, an angel came to him in the waste land of Sinai, in the flame of a burning thorn-tree. And Moses, seeing it, was full of wonder, and when he came up to have a nearer view of it, the voice of the Lord came to him, saying, I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob. And Moses, shaking with fear, kept his eyes from looking at it. And the Lord said, Take off the shoes from your feet, for the place where you are is holy. Truly, I have seen the sorrows of my people in Egypt, and their cries have come to my ears, and I have come down to make them free: and now, come, I will send you to Egypt. This Moses, whom they would not have, saying, Who made you a ruler and a judge? him God sent to be a ruler and a saviour, by the hand of the angel whom he saw in the thorn-tree. This man took them out, having done wonders and signs in Egypt and in the Red Sea and in the waste land, for forty years. This is the same Moses, who said to the children of Israel, God will give you a prophet from among your brothers, like me. This is the man who was in the church in the waste land with the angel who was talking to him in Sinai, and with our fathers; and to him were given the living words of God, so that he might give them to you.

John 1:18 BBE

No man has seen God at any time; the only Son, who is on the breast of the Father, he has made clear what God is.

Malachi 3:1 BBE

See, I am sending my servant, and he will make ready the way before me; and the Lord, whom you are looking for, will suddenly come to his Temple; and the angel of the agreement, in whom you have delight, see, he is coming, says the Lord of armies.

Zechariah 2:8-9 BBE

Said to him, Go quickly and say to this young man, Jerusalem will be an unwalled town, because of the great number of men and cattle in her. For I, says the Lord, will be a wall of fire round about her, and I will be the glory inside her.

Hosea 12:3-5 BBE

The Lord has a cause against Judah, and will give punishment to Jacob for his ways; he will give him the reward of his acts. In the body of his mother he took his brother by the foot, and in his strength he was fighting with God; He had a fight with the angel and overcame him; he made request for grace to him with weeping; he came face to face with him in Beth-el and there his words came to him;

Isaiah 63:9 BBE

It was no sent one or angel, but he himself who was their saviour: in his love and in his pity he took up their cause, and he took them in his arms, caring for them all through the years.

Genesis 21:16 BBE

And she went some distance away, about an arrow flight, and seating herself on the earth, she gave way to bitter weeping, saying, Let me not see the death of my child.

Judges 13:16-22 BBE

And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, Though you keep me I will not take of your food; but if you will make a burned offering, let it be offered to the Lord. For it had not come into Manoah's mind that he was the angel of the Lord. Then Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, What is your name, so that when your words come true we may give you honour? But the angel of the Lord said to him, Why are you questioning me about my name, seeing that it is a wonder? So Manoah took the young goat with its meal offering, offering it on the rock to the Lord, who did strange things. And when the flame went up to heaven from the altar, the angel of the Lord went up in the flame of the altar, while Manoah and his wife were looking on; and they went down on their faces to the earth. But the angel of the Lord was seen no more by Manoah and his wife. Then it was clear to Manoah that he was the angel of the Lord. And Manoah said to his wife, Death will certainly be our fate, for it is a god whom we have seen.

Judges 6:21-24 BBE

Then the angel of the Lord put out the stick which was in his hand, touching the meat and the cakes with the end of it; and a flame came up out of the rock, burning up the meat and the cakes: and the angel of the Lord was seen no longer. Then Gideon was certain that he was the angel of the Lord; and Gideon said, I am in fear, O Lord God! for I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face. But the Lord said to him, Peace be with you; have no fear: you are in no danger of death. Then Gideon made an altar there to the Lord, and gave it the name Yahweh-shalom; to this day it is in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

Judges 6:16 BBE

Then the Lord said to him, Truly, I will be with you, and you will overcome the Midianites as if they were one man.

Judges 6:11 BBE

Now the angel of the Lord came and took his seat under the oak-tree in Ophrah, in the field of Joash the Abiezrite; and his son Gideon was crushing grain in the place where the grapes were crushed, so that the Midianites might not see it.

Judges 2:1-3 BBE

Now the angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, *** I took you out of Egypt, guiding you into the land which I gave by an oath to your fathers; and I said, My agreement with you will never be broken by me: And you are to make no agreement with the people of this land; you are to see that their altars are broken down: but you have not given ear to my voice: what have you done? And so I have said, I will not send them out from before you; but they will be a danger to you, and their gods will be a cause of falling to you.

Exodus 3:2-6 BBE

And the angel of the Lord was seen by him in a flame of fire coming out of a thorn-tree: and he saw that the tree was on fire, but it was not burned up. And Moses said, I will go and see this strange thing, why the tree is not burned up, And when the Lord saw him turning to one side to see, God said his name out of the tree, crying, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And he said, Do not come near: take off your shoes from your feet, for the place where you are is holy. And he said, I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses kept his face covered for fear of looking on God.

Genesis 48:15-16 BBE

And he gave Joseph a blessing, saying, May the God to whom my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, gave worship, the God who has taken care of me all my life till this day, The angel who has been my saviour from all evil, send his blessing on these children: and let my name and the name of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, be given to them; and let them become a great nation in the earth.

Genesis 32:24-30 BBE

Then Jacob was by himself; and a man was fighting with him till dawn. But when the man saw that he was not able to overcome Jacob, he gave him a blow in the hollow part of his leg, so that his leg was damaged. And he said to him, Let me go now, for the dawn is near. But Jacob said, I will not let you go till you have given me your blessing. Then he said, What is your name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel: for in your fight with God and with men you have overcome. Then Jacob said, What is your name? And he said, What is my name to you? Then he gave him a blessing. And Jacob gave that place the name of Peniel, saying, I have seen God face to face, and still I am living.

Genesis 31:11-13 BBE

And in my dream the angel of the Lord said to me, Jacob: and I said, Here am I. And he said, See how all the he-goats are banded and marked and coloured: for I have seen what Laban has done to you. I am the God of Beth-el, where you put oil on the pillar and took an oath to me: now then, come out of this land and go back to the country of your birth.

Genesis 21:18 BBE

Come, take your child in your arms, for I will make of him a great nation.

Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Genesis 16

Commentary on Genesis 16 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary


Verses 1-6

As the promise of a lineal heir (Genesis 15:4) did not seem likely to be fulfilled, even after the covenant had been made, Sarai resolved, ten years after their entrance into Canaan, to give her Egyptian maid Hagar to her husband, that if possible she might “ be built up by her, ” i.e., obtain children, who might found a house or family (Genesis 30:3). The resolution seemed a judicious one, and according to the customs of the East, there would be nothing wrong in carrying it out. Hence Abraham consented without opposition, because, as Malachi (Malachi 2:15) says, he sought the seed promised by God. But they were both of them soon to learn, that their thoughts were the thoughts of man and not of God, and that their wishes and actions were not in accordance with the divine promise. Sarai, the originator of the plan, was the first to experience its evil consequences. When the maid was with child by Abram, “ her mistress became little in her eyes .” When Sarai complained to Abram of the contempt she received from her maid (saying, “ My wrong, ” the wrong done to me, “ come upon thee, ” cf. Jeremiah 51:35; Genesis 27:13), and called upon Jehovah to judge between her and her husband,

(Note: בּיניך , with a point over the second Jod, to show that it is irregular and suspicious; since בּין with the singular suffix is always treated as a singular, and only with a plural suffix as plural.)

Abram gave her full power to act as mistress towards her maid, without raising the slave who was made a concubine above her position. But as soon as Sarai made her feel her power, Hagar fled. Thus, instead of securing the fulfilment of their wishes, Sarai and Abram had reaped nothing but grief and vexation, and apparently had lost the maid through their self-concerted scheme. But the faithful covenant God turned the whole into a blessing.


Verses 7-12

Hagar no doubt intended to escape to Egypt by a road used from time immemorial, that ran from Hebron past Beersheba, “ by the way of Shur .” - Shur , the present Jifar , is the name given to the north-western portion of the desert of Arabia (cf. Exodus 15:22). There the angel of the Lord found her by a well, and directed her to return to her mistress, and submit to her; at the same time he promised her the birth of a son, and an innumerable multiplication of her descendants. As the fruit of her womb was the seed of Abram, she was to return to his house and there bear him a son, who, though not the seed promised by God, would be honoured for Abram's sake with the blessing of an innumerable posterity. For this reason also Jehovah appeared to her in the form of the Angel of Jehovah . הרה is adj. verb . as in Genesis 38:24, etc.: “ thou art with child and wilt bear; ” ילדתּ for ילדת (Genesis 17:19) is found again in Judges 13:5, Judges 13:7. This son she was to call Ishmael (“ God hears ”), “ for Jehovah hath hearkened to thy distress .” עני afflictionem sine dubio vocat, quam Hagar afflictionem sentiebat esse, nempe conditionem servitem et quod castigata esset a Sara ( Luther ). It was Jehovah , not Elohim , who had heard, although the latter name was most naturally suggested as the explanation of Ishmael , because the hearing, i.e., the multiplication of Ishmael's descendants, was the result of the covenant grace of Jehovah . Moreover, in contrast with the oppression which has had endured and still would endure, she received the promise that her son would endure no such oppression. “ He will be a wild ass of a man .” The figure of a פּרא , onager , that wild and untameable animal, roaming at its will in the desert, of which so highly poetic a description is given in Job 39:5-8, depicts most aptly “the Bedouin's boundless love of freedom as he rides about in the desert, spear in hand, upon his camel or his horse, hardy, frugal, revelling in the varied beauty of nature, and despising town life in every form;” and the words, “ his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him, ” describe most truly the incessant state of feud, in which the Ishmaelites live with one another or with their neighbours. “ He will dwell before the face of all his brethren .” פּני על denotes, it is true, to the east of (cf. Genesis 25:18), and this meaning is to be retained here; but the geographical notice of the dwelling-place of the Ishmaelites hardly exhausts the force of the expression, which also indicated that Ishmael would maintain an independent standing before (in the presence of) all the descendants of Abraham. History has confirmed this promise. The Ishmaelites have continued to this day in free and undiminished possession of the extensive peninsula between the Euphrates, the Straits of Suez, and the Red Sea, from which they have overspread both Northern Africa and Southern Asia.


Verse 13-14

In the angel, Hagar recognised God manifesting Himself to her, the presence of Jehovah , and called Him, “ Thou art a God of seeing; for she said, Have I also seen here after seeing? ” Believing that a man must die if he saw God (Exodus 20:19; Exodus 33:20), Hagar was astonished that she had seen God and remained alive, and called Jehovah , who had spoken to her, “God of seeing,” i.e., who allows Himself to be seen, because here, on the spot where this sight was granted her, after seeing she still saw, i.e., remained alive. From this occurrence the well received the name of “ well of the seeing alive, ” i.e., at which a man saw God and remained alive. Beer-lahai-roi: according to Ewald , ראי חי is to be regarded as a composite noun, and ל as a sign of the genitive; but this explanation, in which ראי is treated as a pausal form of ראי , does not suit the form ראי with the accent upon the last syllable, which points rather to the participle ראה with the first pers. suffix. On this ground Delitzsch and others have decided in favour of the interpretation given in the Chaldee version, “Thou art a God of seeing, i.e., the all-seeing, from whose all-seeing eye the helpless and forsaken is not hidden even in the farthest corner of the desert.” “ Have I not even here (in the barren land of solitude) looked after Him, who saw me? ” and Beer-lahai-roi, “the well of the Living One who sees me, i.e., of the omnipresent Providence.” But still greater difficulties lie in the way of this view. It not only overthrows the close connection between this and the similar passages Genesis 32:31; Exodus 33:20; Judges 13:22, where the sight of God excites a fear of death, but it renders the name, which the well received from this appearance of God, an inexplicable riddle. If Hagar called the God who appeared to her ראי אל because she looked after Him whom she saw, i.e., as we must necessarily understand the word, saw not His face, but only His back; how could it ever occur to her or to any one else, to call the well Beer-lahai-roi, “well of the Living One, who sees me,” instead of Beer-el-roi? Moreover, what completely overthrows this explanation, is the fact that neither in Genesis nor anywhere in the Pentateuch is God called “the Living One;” and throughout the Old Testament it is only in contrast with the dead gods of idols of the heathen, a contrast never thought of here, that the expressions חי אלהים and חי אל occur, whilst החי is never used in the Old Testament as a name of God. For these reasons we must abide by the first explanation, and change the reading ראי into ראי .

(Note: The objections to this change in the accentuation are entirely counterbalanced by the grammatical difficulty connected with the second explanation. If, for example, ראי is a participle with the 1st pers. suff., it should be written ראני (Isaiah 29:15) or ראני (Isaiah 47:10). ראי cannot mean, “who sees me,” but “my seer,” an expression utterly inapplicable to God, which cannot be supported by a reference to Job 7:8, for the accentuation varies there; and the derivation of ראי from ראי “eye of the seeing,” for the eye which looks after me, is apparently fully warranted by the analogous expression לדה אשׁת in Jeremiah 13:21.)

With regard to the well, it is still further added that it was between Kadesh (Genesis 14:7) and Bered. Though Bered has not been discovered, Rowland believes, with good reason, that he has found the well of Hagar, which is mentioned again in Genesis 24:62; Genesis 25:11, in the spring Ain Kades , to the south of Beersheba, at the leading place of encampment of the caravans passing from Syria to Sinai, viz., Moyle , or Moilahi , or Muweilih (Robinson, Pal. i. p. 280), which the Arabs call Moilahi Hagar , and in the neighbourhood of which they point out a rock Beit Hagar . Bered must lie to the west of this.


Verse 15-16

Having returned to Abram's house, Hagar bare him a son in his 86th year. He gave it the name Ishmael , and regarded it probably as the promised seed, until, thirteen years afterwards, the counsel of God was more clearly unfolded to him.