1 Sarai, Abram’s wife, hadn’t been able to have any children for him. However, she owned a female Egyptian slave named Hagar, 2 so Sarai said to Abram, "Please listen to me. The Lord hasn’t let me have any children. So please go and sleep with my slave. Maybe I can have a family through her." Abram agreed to what Sarai had suggested. 3 So Sarai, Abram’s wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband as his wife. Abram had been living in the land of Canaan for ten years when this happened.
4 Abram slept with Hagar and she became pregnant. When she realized she was pregnant, she treated her mistress with contempt.16:4. "She looked at her mistress with contempt," literally, "her mistress looked small in her eyes." Another translation would be "she looked down on her mistress."
16 Abram was 86 when Hagar had Ishmael.