Read the Modern Pastor’s Version

Here's the rewritten chapter of Genesis 16:

Sarai, Abram's wife, had no children by him, but she owned an Egyptian handmaid named Hagar. Sarai said to Abram, "Look, I've been barren all this time; the Lord has kept me from having children. Go and sleep with my maid so that I can have a child through her." Abram listened to Sarai's words.

Sarai took her Egyptian maid Hagar and gave her to Abram as his wife after they had lived in Canaan for ten years. And when Hagar became pregnant, she began to look down on her mistress in disdain. Sarai said to Abram, "My wrong is all yours; I entrusted my servant to you, but when she conceived, I was despised by her. May the Lord settle this dispute between us."

Abram told Sarai, "Do as you think best with your maid." But when Sarai mistreated Hagar, she ran away from her. The angel of the Lord found her by a spring in the wilderness near Shur.

The angel asked Hagar, "Where have you come from and where are you going?" She replied, "I'm running away from my mistress Sarai." The angel told her, "Go back to your mistress and submit yourself to her authority."

But the Lord said to Hagar, "I will multiply your descendants greatly. You're now pregnant and will give birth to a son. Name him Ishmael because I have heard of your suffering." He would be a wild man; his hand would be against everyone, and everyone's hand would be against him. He would live among all his relatives.

Hagar gave the name "You see me" to the Lord who spoke to her because she said, "Have I also looked after Him who sees me?" The well where they encountered the Lord was named Beerlahairoi; it is between Kadesh and Bered.

Hagar gave birth to Abram's son Ishmael. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael.