Genesis 16:15

Summary

The verse reports that Hagar gave birth to a son for Abram, and that Abram named this son Ishmael, identifying him explicitly as the son whom Hagar had borne.

Key words

• va-Teled ("and she bore", H3205) — qal narrative verb, marks the main storyline action: Hagar's giving birth.
• ha-Gar ("Hagar", H1904) — proper name, subject of the birth, repeated later in the verse.
• va-yikra ("and he called", H7121H) — qal narrative verb, the second main action: Abram's act of naming.
• shem-be-no ("the name of his son", H8034 + H1121A) — construct chain, "name of" bound to "his son," specifying what is named.
• yaledah ("she had borne", H3205) — same root as teled but in perfect form, marking completed prior action, used inside a relative clause.

What the text says

The verse is built on two narrative verbs joined by the vav consecutive: va-Teled ("and she bore," H3205) and va-yikra ("and he called," H7121H). This structure presents the birth and the naming as sequential events in the story's timeline, each introduced by "and then." The first clause, va-Teled ha-Gar le-Avram ben ("and Hagar bore to Abram a son"), places Hagar as grammatical subject and Abram as recipient via the preposition le- ("to," H9005).

The second clause centers on Abram as subject of va-yikra ("and he called"). The object of naming is expressed through a construct chain, shem-beno ("the name of his son," H8034 + H1121A), followed by a relative clause introduced by asher ("whom," H0834A): "whom Hagar had borne." Inside this relative clause, the verb yaledah ("she had borne," H3205) appears in the perfect rather than the narrative form used earlier for va-Teled. This shift marks the birth as an already-completed event at the time of naming, distinguishing the relative clause from the main narrative sequence. The repetition of ha-Gar ("Hagar," H1904) within the relative clause — rather than a pronoun — explicitly restates her as the one who bore the child, reinforcing the identification of the son before the name Yishma'el ("Ishmael," H3458G) is finally given.

Differences between versions

The LXX (Septuagint) adds material not present in the Hebrew or the Vulgate: a sentence stating Abram's age as eighty-six years when Hagar bore Ishmael to him ("Ἀβρὰμ δὲ ἦν ὀγδοήκοντα ἔξ ἐτῶν ἡνίκα ἔτεκεν Ἁγὰρ τὸν Ἰσμαὴλ τῷ Ἀβράμ"). This clause has no corresponding Hebrew word-by-word data in the provided text, and the Vulgate (VULCLEM) also lacks it, ending simply with "qui vocavit nomen ejus Ismaël" ("who called his name Ishmael").