Genesis 21

Chapter 21

Isaac Is Born

^1aThen the Lord took note of Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as He had ¹promised.

^2aSo Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at ^bthe appointed time of which God had spoken to him.

³Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore to him, ^aIsaac.

⁴Then Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was ^aeight days old, as God had commanded him.

⁵Now Abraham was ^aone hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.

⁶Sarah said, “God has made ^alaughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh ¹with me.”

⁷And she said, “^aWho would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”

⁸The child grew and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.

Sarah Turns against Hagar

⁹Now Sarah saw ^athe son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, ^1bmocking.

¹⁰Therefore she said to Abraham, “^aDrive out this maid and her son, for the son of this maid shall not be an heir with my son ¹Isaac.”

^11aThe matter ¹distressed Abraham greatly because of his son.

¹²But God said to Abraham, “¹Do not be distressed because of the lad and your maid; whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her, for ^athrough Isaac ²your descendants shall be named.

¹³“And of ^athe son of the maid I will make a nation also, because he is your ¹descendant.”

¹⁴So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a ¹skin of water and gave them to Hagar, putting them on her shoulder, and gave her the boy, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered about in the wilderness of Beersheba.

¹⁵When the water in the skin was used up, she ¹left the boy under one of the bushes.

¹⁶Then she went and sat down opposite him, about a bowshot away, for she said, “Do not let me ¹see the boy die.” And she sat opposite him, and ^alifted up her voice and wept.

¹⁷God ^aheard the lad crying; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter with you, Hagar? ^bDo not fear, for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is.

¹⁸“Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him by ¹the hand, ^afor I will make a great nation of him.”

¹⁹Then God ^aopened her eyes and she saw ^ba well of water; and she went and filled the ¹skin with water and gave the lad a drink.

^20aGod was with the lad, and he grew; and he ¹lived in the wilderness and became an archer.

^21aHe ¹lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

Covenant with Abimelech

²²Now it came about at that time that ^aAbimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, spoke to Abraham, saying, “^bGod is with you in all that you do;

²³now therefore, ^aswear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my offspring or with my posterity, but according to the kindness that I have shown to you, you shall show to me and to the land in which you have sojourned.”

²⁴Abraham said, “I swear it.”

²⁵But Abraham ¹complained to Abimelech because of the well of water which the servants of Abimelech ^ahad seized.

²⁶And Abimelech said, “I do not know who has done this thing; you did not tell me, nor did I hear of it ¹until today.”

²⁷Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and ^athe two of them made a covenant.

²⁸Then Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves.

²⁹Abimelech said to Abraham, “What do these seven ewe lambs mean, which you have set by themselves?”

³⁰He said, “You shall take these seven ewe lambs from my hand so that it may be a ^awitness to me, that I dug this well.”

³¹Therefore he called that place ^aBeersheba, because there the two of them took an oath.

³²So they made a covenant at Beersheba; and Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, arose and returned to the land of the Philistines.

³³Abraham planted a tamarisk tree at Beersheba, and there ^ahe called on the name of the Lord, the ^bEverlasting God.

³⁴And Abraham sojourned ^ain the land of the Philistines for many days.