Abraham

===Hagar===
{{see also|Hagar|Hagar in Islam}}
[[File:Foster Bible Pictures 0032-1.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|''Abraham, [[Sarah]] and [[Hagar]]'', Bible illustration from 1897]]

Abram and Sarai tried to make sense of how he would become a progenitor of nations, because after 10 years of living in Canaan, no child had been born. Sarai then offered her Egyptian slave, [[Hagar]], to Abram with the intention that she would bear him a son.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=53&letter=H |title=Jewish Encyclopedia, ''Hagar'' |publisher=Jewishencyclopedia.com}}</ref>

After Hagar found she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress, Sarai. Sarai responded by mistreating Hagar, and Hagar fled into the wilderness. An angel spoke with Hagar at the fountain on the way to [[Shur (Bible)|Shur]]. He instructed her to return to Abram's camp and that her son would be "a wild ass of a man; his hand shall be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the face of all his brethren." She was told to call her son [[Ishmael]]. Hagar then called God who spoke to her "[[El Roi|El-roi]]", ("Thou God seest me:" KJV). From that day onward, the well was called Beer-lahai-roi, ("The well of him that liveth and seeth me." KJV margin), located between [[Kadesh (biblical)|Kadesh]] and Bered. She then did as she was instructed by returning to her mistress in order to have her child. Abram was 86 years of age when Ishmael was born.<ref>{{bibleverse|Genesis|16:4–16|niv}}</ref>