Genesis 21

Conflict with Hagar and Ishmael Genesis 21:8–14

⁸Verse 8. The child grew, and was weaned. Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. ⁹Verse 9. Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking. ¹⁰Verse 10. Therefore she said to Abraham, “Cast out this servant and her son! For the son of this servant will not be heir with my son, Isaac.” ¹¹Verse 11. The thing was very grievous in Abraham’s sight on account of his son. ¹²Verse 12. God said to Abraham, “Don’t let it be grievous in your sight because of the boy, and because of your servant. In all that Sarah says to you, listen to her voice. For your offspring will be named through Isaac.

¹³Verse 13. I will also make a nation of the son of the servant, because he is your child.” ¹⁴Verse 14. Abraham 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.

Hagar and Ishmael in the Wilderness Genesis 21:15–21

¹⁵Verse 15. The water in the bottle was spent, and she put the child under one of the shrubs. ¹⁶Verse 16. She 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. ¹⁷Verse 17. God 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. ¹⁸Verse 18. Get up, lift up the boy, and hold him in your hand. For I will make him a great nation.”

¹⁹Verse 19. God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. She went, filled the bottle with water, and gave the boy drink. ²⁰Verse 20. God was with the boy, and he grew. He lived in the wilderness, and became, as he grew up, an archer. ²¹Verse 21. He lived in the wilderness of Paran. His mother took a wife for him out of the land of Egypt.

Abraham's Covenant with Abimelech Genesis 21:22–34

²²Verse 22. At that time, Abimelech and Phicol the captain of his army spoke to Abraham, saying, “God is with you in all that you do. ²³Verse 23. Now, 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.” ²⁴Verse 24. Abraham said, “I will swear.” ²⁵Verse 25. Abraham complained to Abimelech because of a water well, which Abimelech’s servants had violently taken away. ²⁶Verse 26. Abimelech said, “I don’t know who has done this thing. You didn’t tell me, and I didn’t hear of it until today.”

²⁷Verse 27. Abraham took sheep and cattle, and gave them to Abimelech. Those two made a covenant. ²⁸Verse 28. Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves. ²⁹Verse 29. Abimelech said to Abraham, “What do these seven ewe lambs which you have set by themselves mean?” ³⁰Verse 30. He 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.” ³¹Verse 31. Therefore he called that place Beersheba, because they both swore an oath there. ³²Verse 32. So 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.

³³Verse 33. Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and called there on the name of Yahweh, the Everlasting God. ³⁴Verse 34. Abraham lived as a foreigner in the land of the Philistines many days.