Genesis
21
- Now the LORD was gracious to Sarah as he
had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what he had promised.
- Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to
Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him.
- Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah
bore him.
- When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham
circumcised him, as God commanded him.
- Abraham was a hundred years old when his
son Isaac was born to him.
- Sarah said, "God has brought me laughter,
and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me."
- And she added, "Who would have said
to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in
his old age."
- The child grew and was weaned, and on the
day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast.
- But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the
Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking,
- and she said to Abraham, "Get rid of
that slave woman and her son, for that slave woman's son will never share
in the inheritance with my son Isaac."
- The matter distressed Abraham greatly because
it concerned his son.
- But God said to him, "Do not be so
distressed about the boy and your maidservant. Listen to whatever Sarah tells
you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.
- I will make the son of the maidservant into
a nation also, because he is your offspring."
- Early the next morning Abraham took some
food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders
and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the
desert of Beersheba.
- When the water in the skin was gone, she
put the boy under one of the bushes.
- Then she went off and sat down nearby, about
a bowshot away, for she thought, "I cannot watch the boy die." And
as she sat there nearby, she began to sob.
- God heard the boy crying, and the angel
of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, "What is the matter,
Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there.
- Lift the boy up and take him by the hand,
for I will make him into a great nation."
- Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well
of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.
- God was with the boy as he grew up. He lived
in the desert and became an archer.
- While he was living in the Desert of Paran,
his mother got a wife for him from Egypt.
- At that time Abimelech and Phicol the commander
of his forces said to Abraham, "God is with you in everything you do.
- Now swear to me here before God that you
will not deal falsely with me or my children or my descendants. Show to me
and the country where you are living as an alien the same kindness I have
shown to you."
- Abraham said, "I swear it."
- Then Abraham complained to Abimelech about
a well of water that Abimelech's servants had seized.
- But Abimelech said, "I don't know who
has done this. You did not tell me, and I heard about it only today."
- So Abraham brought sheep and cattle and
gave them to Abimelech, and the two men made a treaty.
- Abraham set apart seven ewe lambs from the
flock,
- and Abimelech asked Abraham, "What
is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs you have set apart by themselves?"
- He replied, "Accept these seven lambs
from my hand as a witness that I dug this well."
- So that place was called Beersheba, because
the two men swore an oath there.
- After the treaty had been made at Beersheba,
Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his forces returned to the land of the
Philistines.
- Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba,
and there he called upon the name of the LORD, the Eternal God.
- And Abraham stayed in the land of the Philistines
for a long time.
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