Genesis 21  Legacy Standard Bible

Isaac Is Born

21 ^(A)Now Yahweh visited Sarah as He had said, and Yahweh did for Sarah as He had ^[a]promised. ^2 (B)So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at ^(C)the appointed time of which God had spoken to him. ³ And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore to him, ^(D)Isaac. ⁴ Then Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was ^(E)eight days old, as God had commanded him. ⁵ Now Abraham was ^(F)one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. ⁶ And Sarah said, “God has made ^(G)laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh ^[b]with me.” ⁷ And she said, “^(H)Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”

Sarah Sends Hagar Away

⁸ And the child grew and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. ⁹ And Sarah saw ^(I)the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, ^[c](J)laughing in jest. ¹⁰ Therefore she said to Abraham, “^(K)Drive out this maidservant and her son! The son of this maidservant shall not be an heir with my son, with Isaac.” ^11 (L)And the matter ^[d]distressed Abraham greatly because of his son. ¹² So God said to Abraham, “^[e]Do not be distressed because of the boy and your maidservant; whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her voice, for ^(M)through Isaac your seed shall be named. ¹³ And of ^(N)the son of the maidservant I will make a nation also, because he is your seed.” ¹⁴ So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a ^[f]skin of water and gave them to Hagar, putting them on her shoulder, and gave her the child, and sent her away. So she went and wandered about in the wilderness of Beersheba.

¹⁵ When the water in the skin was finished, she ^[g]put the child under one of the bushes. ¹⁶ Then she went and sat down opposite him, about a bowshot away, for she said, “Do not let me ^[h]see when the child dies.” And she sat opposite him and ^(O)lifted up her voice and wept. ¹⁷ Then God ^(P)heard the voice of the boy crying; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter with you, Hagar? ^(Q)Do not fear, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. ¹⁸ Arise, lift up the boy, and hold him by ^[i]the hand, ^(R)for I will make a great nation of him.” ¹⁹ Then God ^(S)opened her eyes, and she saw ^(T)a well of water; and she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.

^20 (U)And God was with the boy, and he grew; and he ^[j]lived in the wilderness and was an archer. ^21 (V)And he ^[k]lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

A Covenant with Abimelech

²² Now it happened at that time, that ^(W)Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, spoke to Abraham, saying, “^(X)God is with you in all that you do; ²³ so now, ^(Y)swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my offspring or with my posterity, but according to the lovingkindness that I have shown you, you shall show me and the land in which you have sojourned.” ²⁴ And Abraham said, “I swear it.” ²⁵ But Abraham reproved Abimelech about the well of water which the servants of Abimelech ^(Z)had seized. ²⁶ And Abimelech said, “I do not know who has done this thing; you did not tell me, nor did I hear of it ^[l]until today.”

²⁷ So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and ^(AA)the two of them cut a covenant. ²⁸ Then Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves. ²⁹ And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What do these seven ewe lambs mean, which you have set by themselves?” ³⁰ He said, “You shall take these seven ewe lambs from my hand so that it may be a ^(AB)witness to me, that I dug this well.” ³¹ Therefore he called that place ^(AC)Beersheba, because there the two of them swore an oath. ³² So they cut a covenant at Beersheba; and Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, arose and returned to the land of the Philistines. ³³ And Abraham planted a tamarisk tree at Beersheba, and there ^(AD)he called upon the name of Yahweh, the ^(AE)Everlasting God. ³⁴ And Abraham sojourned ^(AF)in the land of the Philistines for many days.