Genesis 21

¹ Yahweh dealt kindly with Sarah as he had said, and did what he had promised her.

² So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the time God had promised.

³ Abraham named the son born to him Isaac, the son to whom Sarah had given birth.

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

⁵ Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.

⁶ Then Sarah said, ‘God has given me cause to laugh; all those who hear of it will laugh with me[*a].’

⁷ She added: ‘Who would have told Abraham that Sarah would nurse children! Yet I have borne him a child in his old age.’

⁸ The child grew and was weaned, and Abraham gave a great banquet on the day Isaac was weaned.

⁹ Now Sarah watched the son that Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham, playing,[*b] with her son Isaac.

¹⁰ ‘Drive away that slave-girl and her son,’ she said to Abraham; ‘this slave-girl’s son is not to share the inheritance with my son Isaac.’

¹¹ This greatly distressed Abraham because of his son,

¹² but God said to him, ‘Do not distress yourself on account of the boy and your slave-girl. Grant Sarah all she asks of you, for it is through Isaac that your name will be carried on.

¹³ But the slave-girl’s son I will also make into a nation, for he is your child too.’

¹⁴ Rising early next morning Abraham took some bread and a skin of water and, giving them to Hagar, he put the child on her shoulder and sent her away. She wandered off into the wilderness of Beersheba.

¹⁵ When the skin of water was finished she abandoned the child under a bush.

¹⁶ Then she went and sat down at a distance, about a bowshot away, saying to herself, ‘I cannot see the child die’. So she sat at a distance; and the child wailed and wept.

¹⁷ But God heard the boy wailing, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven. ‘What is wrong, Hagar?’ he asked. ‘Do not be afraid, for God has heard the boy’s cry where he lies.

¹⁸ Come, pick up the boy and hold him safe, for I will make him into a great nation.’

¹⁹ Then God opened Hagar’s eyes and she saw a well, so she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.

²⁰ God was with the boy. He grew up and made his home in the wilderness, and he became a bowman.

²¹ He made his home in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother chose him a wife from the land of Egypt.

²² At that time Abimelech came with Phicol, the commander of his army, to speak to Abraham, ‘God is with you in all you are doing.

²³ Swear by God to me here and now that you will not trick me, neither myself nor my descendants nor any of mine, and that you will show the same kindness to me and the land of which you are a guest as I have shown to you.’

²⁴ ‘Yes,’ Abraham replied ‘I swear it.’

²⁵ Abraham reproached Abimelech about a well that Abimelech’s servants had seized.

²⁶ ‘I do not know who has done this’ Abimelech said. ‘You yourself have never mentioned it to me, and for myself, I heard nothing of it till today.’

²⁷ Then Abraham took sheep and cattle and presented them to Abimelech and the two of them made a covenant.

²⁸ Abraham put seven lambs of the flock on one side.

²⁹ ‘Why have you put these seven lambs on one side?’ Abimelech asked Abraham.

³⁰ He replied, ‘You must accept these seven lambs from me as evidence that I have dug this well’.

³¹ This is why they called that place Beersheba, because there the two of them swore an oath.[*c]

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

³³ Abraham planted a tamarisk at Beersheba and there he invoked Yahweh, the everlasting God.

³⁴ Abraham stayed for a long while in the land of the Philistines.