Genesis 16:13

"And she called the name of Jehovah that spake unto her, Thou art a God that seeth: for she said, Have I even here looked after him that seeth me? Wherefore the well was called Beer-lahairoi; behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered."

"Have I even here looked after him that seeth me? ..." Scholars are much divided on exactly how to translate the words thus rendered in our version (ASV), but we are strongly inclined to allow the translation we have before us. It makes as good a sense as any, and besides, as Robinson bluntly stated it:

"As the text stands, the whole name is not explained, but it is possible that the latter part of Genesis 16:13 should read, I have seen God and have survived after seeing him ... this, however, is pure conjecture, and it may well be that this part of the name of the well had no explanation at all in the original narrative.[16]

Whatever the exact meaning of the names here, the thought is clear enough that God had seen Hagar's distress, and that he heeded her cry, consoled her, put her feet homeward on the path of duty, and gave magnificent prophecies of the son to be born to her.

We may only conjecture as to the reaction of Abram and Sarai when they got word from the returned Hagar that God had appeared to her and that she was indeed going to have a son, and what a son! "A wild-ass of a man, destined to be the enemy of Israel forever!" It must have been hard for Sarai and Abram to hear this.