18 Jan. Ishmael is born
"Sarai, Abram's wife, had no children, but she had a slave girl from Egypt named Hagar. Sarai said to Abram, 'Look, the LORD has not allowed me to have children, so have sexual relations with my slave girl. If she has a child, maybe I can have my own family through her...'"
"Abram had sexual relations with Hagar, and she became pregnant. When Hagar learned she was pregnant, she began to treat her mistress Sarai badly. Then Sarai said to Abram, 'This is your fault. I gave my slave girl to you, and when she became pregnant, she began to treat me badly. Let the LORD decide who is right - you or me.'"
"But Abram said to Sarai, 'You are Hagar's mistress. Do anything you want to her.' Then Sarai ill-treated Hagar, and Hagar ran away."
The angel of the LORD found Hagar beside a spring of water in the desert, by the road to Shur. The angel said, 'Hagar, Sarai's slave girl, where have you come from? Where are you going?' Hagar answered, 'I am running away from my mistress Sarai.'"
"The angel of the LORD said to her, 'Go home to your mistress and obey her.' The angel also said, 'I will give you so many descendants they will be too many to count...'"
"The slave girl gave a name to the LORD who spoke to her: 'You are "God who sees me..." ' So the well there, between Kadesh and Bered, was called 'Beer Lahai Roi'"
"Hagar gave birth to a son for Abram, and Abram named him Ishmael. Abram was 86 years old when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael."
(Genesis 16:1-16)
God had promised Abram a son (see Genesis 15:4); but as his wife Sarai was barren, Abram decided to conceive a child by Hagar, his Egyptian slave girl. No doubt filled with jealousy, Sarai ill-treated Hagar, who fled south into the desert.
The angel of the LORD met Hagar at a spring in the desert on the road to Shur ('The Way of Shur'). He told her to return to Sarai.
He also told Hagar that her child, Ishmael, would be the father of a great nation, with "many descendants" - "too many to count". (Genesis 16:10).
Hagar realised that God had spoken to her, so she called the place 'Beer Lahai Roi' (‘The Well of the Living One who sees me’).
Hagar returned to Abram at Hebron and Ishmael was born in c.1842BC. Ishmael later became the father of a great nation – the Arabs (see Genesis 21:13).
The photo (by Mark A. Wilson) shows a spring at Nachal Paran in the Negev desert of Israel.
You can see a map showing the Wilderness of Shur and the Desert of Paran on The Bible Journey website @ https://www.thebiblejourney.org/…/23-…/the-birth-of-ishmael/