Genesis 21:18

I will also make a nation of the son of the servant, because he is your child.”

These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names, by their villages, and by their encampments: twelve princes, according to their nations.

He blesses them also, so that they are multiplied greatly. He doesn’t allow their livestock to decrease.

Yahweh’s angel said to her, “I will greatly multiply your offspring, that they will not be counted for multitude.”

As for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He will become the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation.

“ ‘I will have respect for you, make you fruitful, multiply you, and will establish my covenant with you.

God blessed them. God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if a man can count the dust of the earth, then your offspring may also be counted.

Yahweh brought him outside, and said, “Look now toward the sky, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” He said to Abram, “So your offspring will be.”

Hagar bore a son for Abram. Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael.

“As for me, behold, my covenant is with you. You will be the father of a multitude of nations.

I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you. Kings will come out of you.

He said, “I will certainly return to you at about this time next year; and behold, Sarah your wife will have a son.” Sarah heard in the tent door, which was behind him.

Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking.

She went and sat down opposite him, a good way off, about a bow shot away. For she said, “Don’t let me see the death of the child.” She sat opposite him, and lifted up her voice, and wept.

God was with the boy, and he grew. He lived in the wilderness, and as he grew up, became an archer.

Now this is the history of the generations of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s servant, bore to Abraham.

Yahweh’s angel came and sat under the oak which was in Ophrah, that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite. His son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press, to hide it from the Midianites.

Yahweh said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.”

In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and in his pity he redeemed them. He bore them, and carried them all the days of old.

“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me; and the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, behold, he comes!” says Yahweh of Armies.

No one has seen God at any time. The one and only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, has declared him.

As it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations.” This is in the presence of him whom he believed: God, who gives life to the dead, and calls the things that are not, as though they were.

He alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen, nor can see: to whom be honor and eternal power. Amen.