Genesis 20–21

Abraham and Abimelech

20From there Abraham journeyed toward the territory of the Negeb and lived between ^pKadesh and Shur; and he ^qsojourned in ^rGerar. ²And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, ^s“She is my sister.” And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. ^3tBut God came to Abimelech ^uin a dream by night and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.” ⁴Now Abimelech had not approached her. So he said, ^v“Lord, will you kill an innocent people? ⁵Did he not himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this.” ⁶Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning ^wagainst me. Therefore I did not let you touch her. ⁷Now then, return the man’s wife, ^xfor he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live. But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you ^yand all who are yours.”

⁸So Abimelech rose early in the morning and called all his servants and told them all these things. And the men were very much afraid. ⁹Then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? And how have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and my kingdom a great sin? You have done to me things that ought not to be done.” ¹⁰And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What did you see, that you did this thing?” ¹¹Abraham said, “I did it because I thought, ^z‘There is no fear of God at all in this place, and ^athey will kill me because of my wife.’ ¹²Besides, ^bshe is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife. ¹³And when ^cGod caused me to wander from my father’s house, I said to her, ‘This is the kindness you must do me: at every place to which we come, ^dsay of me, “He is my brother.” ’ ”

¹⁴Then Abimelech ^etook sheep and oxen, and male servants and female servants, and gave them to Abraham, and returned Sarah his wife to him. ¹⁵And Abimelech said, “Behold, ^fmy land is before you; dwell where it pleases you.” ¹⁶To Sarah he said, “Behold, I have given ^gyour brother a thousand pieces of silver. It is ^ha sign of your innocence in the eyes of all¹ who are with you, and before everyone you are vindicated.” ¹⁷Then ⁱAbraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, and also healed his wife and female slaves so that they bore children. ¹⁸For the Lord ^jhad closed all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

The Birth of Isaac

21The Lord ^kvisited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah ^las he had promised. ²And Sarah ^mconceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age ⁿat the time of which God had spoken to him. ³Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, ^oIsaac.^{1 4}And Abraham ^pcircumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, ^qas God had commanded him. ^5rAbraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. ⁶And Sarah said, ^s“God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me.” ⁷And she said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? ^tYet I have borne him a son in his old age.”

God Protects Hagar and Ishmael

⁸And the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. ⁹But Sarah ^usaw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, ^vlaughing.^{2 10}So she said to Abraham, ^w“Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.” ¹¹And the thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son. ¹²But God said to Abraham, “Be not displeased because of the boy and because of your slave woman. Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for ^xthrough Isaac shall your offspring be named. ¹³And I will make ^ya nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring.” ¹⁴So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered in the wilderness of ^zBeersheba.

¹⁵When the water in the skin was gone, she put the child under one of the bushes. ¹⁶Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot, for she said, “Let me not look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. ¹⁷And God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. ¹⁸Up! Lift up the boy, and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make him into a great nation.” ¹⁹Then ^aGod opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. And she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. ²⁰And God was with the boy, and he grew up. He lived in the wilderness ^band became an expert with the bow. ²¹He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

A Treaty with Abimelech

²²At that time ^cAbimelech and Phicol the commander of his army said to Abraham, ^d“God is with you in all that you do. ²³Now therefore swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my descendants or with my posterity, but ^eas I have dealt kindly with you, so you will deal with me and with the land where you have sojourned.” ²⁴And Abraham said, “I will swear.”

²⁵When Abraham reproved Abimelech about a well of water that Abimelech’s servants ^fhad seized, ²⁶Abimelech said, “I do not know who has done this thing; you did not tell me, and I have not heard of it until today.” ²⁷So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two men ^gmade a covenant. ²⁸Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock apart. ²⁹And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs that you have set apart?” ³⁰He said, “These seven ewe lambs you will take from my hand, that this³ may be a witness for me that I dug this well.” ³¹Therefore ^hthat place was called Beersheba,⁴ because there both of them swore an oath. ³²So they made a covenant at Beersheba. Then Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army rose up and returned to the land of the Philistines. ³³Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and ⁱcalled there on the name of the Lord, ^jthe Everlasting God. ³⁴And Abraham sojourned many days in the land of the Philistines.