Genesis 21

1Yahweh visited Sarah as he had said, and Yahweh did for Sarah as he had spoken.

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

3Abraham named his son born to him, whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac.

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

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

6Sarah said, "God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me."

7She said, "Who would have spoken to Abraham that Sarah would nurse sons? For I have borne him a son in his old age."

8The child grew up and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast on the day of Isaac's weaning.

9Sarah saw Hagar the Egyptian's son, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking.

10She said to Abraham, “Drive out this maidservant and her son, for the son of this maidservant will not inherit with my son, with Isaac.”

11The matter distressed Abraham greatly because of his son.

12God said to Abraham, "Do not let it distress you because of the boy or because of your handmaid. Whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her voice, for through Isaac your offspring will be named."

13I will also make a nation of the son of the handmaid, because he is your seed.

14Abraham rose early in the morning, took bread and a skin of water, gave them to Hagar by setting them on her shoulder, handed her the child, and sent her away. She set out and lost her way in the wilderness of Beersheba.

15The water in the bottle was used up, and she threw the child under one of the shrubs.

16She went and sat down apart from him at a distance like a bowshot, for she said, "Let me not see the child die." She sat opposite him, lifted up her voice, and wept.

17God heard the boy's voice, and God's angel called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, "What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid, for God has heard the boy's voice there where he is."

18Get up, lift the boy, and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make him a great nation.

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

20God was with the boy, and he grew up and lived in the wilderness, and he became a great archer.

21He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother got him a wife from the land of Egypt.

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

23Now therefore swear to me here by God that you will not lie to me, nor to my son, nor to my son's son, but deal with me and with the land where you have sojourned as the kindness I have shown you.

24Abraham answered, "I will swear."

25Abraham argued with Abimelech over the matter of the water well that Abimelech's servants had seized.

26Abimelech replied, "I had no knowledge of who committed this deed, nor did you inform me, nor had I heard of it before today."

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

28Abraham set seven ewe lambs from the sheep by themselves.

29Abimelech said to Abraham, "What do these seven ewe lambs mean that you set apart?"

30He said, “Take these seven lambs from my hand, so they may be a witness to me that I have dug this well.”

31So he called that place Beersheba, because both of them swore there.

32They cut a covenant at Beersheba. Abimelech arose with Phicol, commander of his army, and they returned to the land of the Philistines.

33Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and called there upon the name of Yahweh the eternal God.

34Abraham dwelt many days in the land of the Philistines.