Genesis 21

Isaac Is Born

1The LORD attended to Sarah as he had said, and did for her what he had promised. 2Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the appointed time God had told him.

3Abraham named the son born to him, whom Sarah had borne, Isaac. 4Abraham circumcised his son Isaac at eight days old, as God had commanded him. 5Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born.

6Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter. Everyone who hears will laugh with me.” 7She added, “Who would have told Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”

Hagar and Her Son Are Sent Away

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

9Sarah saw the son Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham laughing. 10She said to Abraham, “Drive out this slave woman and her son. This slave woman's son will not share the inheritance with my son Isaac.”

11The matter distressed Abraham deeply because it concerned his son.

12God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed about the boy and your slave woman. Listen to everything Sarah tells you, for it is through Isaac that your descendants will be named. 13I will also make the slave woman's son a nation, because he is your descendant too.”

14Early the next morning Abraham took bread and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar, placing them on her shoulder. He gave her the child as well and sent her away. She left and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.

God Hears the Boy

15When the water in the skin ran out, she put the child under one of the bushes.

16Then she went and sat opposite him, about a bowshot away. “I cannot watch the child die,” she said. Sitting there across from him, she raised her voice and wept.

17God heard the boy's voice. God's messenger called to Hagar from the heavens: “What is wrong, Hagar? Do not be afraid. God has heard the boy's voice right where he is. 18Get up, lift the boy, and hold him firmly by the hand, for I will make him a great nation.”

19God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. She went, filled the skin, and gave the boy a drink.

20God was with the boy as he grew. He lived in the wilderness and became an archer. 21He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother found him a wife from Egypt.

A Covenant at Beersheba

22At that time Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, said to Abraham, “God is with you in everything you do.

23Now swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me, my children, or my descendants. Show me and the land where you have lived as a stranger the same kindness I have shown you.”

24Abraham answered, “I will swear it.”

25Then Abraham confronted Abimelech about a well that Abimelech's servants had seized.

26Abimelech answered, “I do not know who did this. You did not tell me, and I have heard nothing about it until today.”

27Abraham gave Abimelech sheep and cattle, and the two made a covenant.

28Abraham set seven ewe lambs apart from the flock.

29Abimelech asked Abraham, “What are these seven ewe lambs you have set apart?”

30He answered, “Accept these seven ewe lambs from me as a witness that I dug this well.”

31That is why he named the place Beersheba, because the two of them swore an oath there.

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

33Abraham planted a tamarisk at Beersheba and called there on the name of the LORD, the everlasting God. 34Abraham lived as a stranger in the land of the Philistines for a long time.