Chapter 21

¹Yahweh visited Sarah as he had said, and Yahweh did to Sarah as he had spoken. ²Sarah conceived, and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. ³Abraham called his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac.⁷⁷Isaac means “He laughs.” ⁴Abraham circumcised his son, Isaac, when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. ⁵Abraham was one hundred years old when his son, Isaac, was born to him. ⁶Sarah said, “God has made me laugh. Everyone who hears will laugh with me.” ⁷She said, “Who would have said to Abraham, that Sarah would nurse children? For I have borne him a son in his old age.”

⁸The child grew, and was weaned. Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. ⁹Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking. ¹⁰Therefore she said to Abraham, “Cast out this handmaid and her son! For the son of this handmaid will not be heir with my son, Isaac.”

¹¹The thing was very grievous in Abraham’s sight on account of his son. ¹²God said to Abraham, “Don’t let it be grievous in your sight because of the boy, and because of your handmaid. In all that Sarah says to you, listen to her voice. For from Isaac will your seed be called. ¹³I will also make a nation of the son of the handmaid, because he is your seed.” ¹⁴Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread and a bottle of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder; and gave her the child, and sent her away. She departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. ¹⁵The water in the bottle was spent, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs. ¹⁶She went and sat down opposite him, a good way off, about a bow shot away. For she said, “Don’t let me see the death of the child.” She sat over against him, and lifted up her voice, and wept. ¹⁷God heard the voice of the boy.

The angel of God called to Hagar out of the sky, and said to her, “What ails you, Hagar? Don’t be afraid. For God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. ¹⁸Get up, lift up the boy, and hold him in 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 bottle with water, and gave the boy drink. ²⁰God was with the boy, and he grew. He lived in the wilderness, and became, as he grew up, an archer. ²¹He lived in the wilderness of Paran. His mother took a wife for him out of the land of Egypt.

²²It happened at that time, that Abimelech and Phicol the captain of his army spoke to Abraham, saying, “God is with you in all that you do. ²³Now, therefore, swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me, nor with my son, nor with my son’s son. But according to the kindness that I have done to you, you shall do to me, and to the land in which you have lived as a foreigner.”

²⁴Abraham said, “I will swear.” ²⁵Abraham complained to Abimelech because of a water well, which Abimelech’s servants had violently taken away. ²⁶Abimelech said, “I don’t know who has done this thing. Neither did you tell me, neither did I hear of it, until today.”

²⁷Abraham took sheep and oxen, and gave them to Abimelech. Those two made a covenant. ²⁸Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves. ²⁹Abimelech said to Abraham, “What do these seven ewe lambs which you have set by themselves mean?”

³⁰He said, “You shall take these seven ewe lambs from my hand, that it may be a witness to me, that I have dug this well.” ³¹Therefore he called that place Beersheba,⁸⁸Beersheba can mean “well of the oath” or “well of seven.” because they both swore there. ³²So they made a covenant at Beersheba. Abimelech rose up with Phicol, the captain of his army, and they returned into the land of the Philistines. ³³Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and called there on the name of Yahweh, the Everlasting God. ³⁴Abraham lived as a foreigner in the land of the Philistines many days.