Genesis 21
21
A Baby for Sarah
1The Lord cared for Sarah as he had said and did for her what he had promised. 2Sarah became pregnant and gave birth to a son for Abraham in his old age. Everything happened at the time God had said it would. 3Abraham named his son Isaac, the son Sarah gave birth to. 4He circumcised Isaac when he was eight days old as God had commanded.
5Abraham was one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born. 6And Sarah said, “God has made me laugh. Everyone who hears about this will laugh with me. 7No one thought that I would be able to have Abraham’s child, but even though Abraham is old I have given him a son.”
Hagar and Ishmael Leave
8Isaac grew, and when he became old enough to eat food, Abraham gave a great feast. 9But Sarah saw Ishmael making fun of Isaac. (Ishmael was the son of Abraham by Hagar, Sarah’s Egyptian slave.) 10So Sarah said to Abraham, “Throw out this slave woman and her son. Her son should not inherit anything; my son Isaac should receive it all.”
11This troubled Abraham very much because Ishmael was also his son. 12But God said to Abraham, “Don’t be troubled about the boy and the slave woman. Do whatever Sarah tells you. The descendants I promised you will be from Isaac. 13I will also make the descendants of Ishmael into a great nation because he is your son, too.”
14Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a leather bag full of water. He gave them to Hagar and sent her away. Carrying these things and her son, Hagar went and wandered in the desert of Beersheba.
15Later, when all the water was gone from the bag, Hagar put her son under a bush. 16Then she went away a short distance and sat down. She thought, “My son will die, and I cannot watch this happen.” She sat there and began to cry.
17God heard the boy crying, and God’s angel called to Hagar from heaven. He said, “What is wrong, Hagar? Don’t be afraid! God has heard the boy crying there. 18Help him up and take him by the hand. I will make his descendants into a great nation.”
19Then God showed Hagar a well of water. So she went to the well and filled her bag with water and gave the boy a drink.
20God was with the boy as he grew up. Ishmael lived in the desert and became an archer. 21He lived in the Desert of Paran, and his mother found a wife for him in Egypt.
Abraham’s Bargain with Abimelech
22Then Abimelech came with Phicol, the commander of his army, and said to Abraham, “God is with you in everything you do. 23So make a promise to me here before God that you will be fair with me and my children and my descendants. Be kind to me and to this land where you have lived as a stranger—as kind as I have been to you.”
24And Abraham said, “I promise.” 25Then Abraham complained to Abimelech about Abimelech’s servants who had seized a well of water.
26But Abimelech said, “I don’t know who did this. You never told me about this before today.”
27Then Abraham gave Abimelech some sheep and cattle, and they made an agreement. 28Abraham also put seven female lambs in front of Abimelech.
29Abimelech asked Abraham, “Why did you put these seven female lambs by themselves?”
30Abraham answered, “Accept these lambs from me to prove that you believe I dug this well.”
31So that place was called Beersheba because they made a promise to each other there.
32After Abraham and Abimelech made the agreement at Beersheba, Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, went back to the land of the Philistines.
33Abraham planted a tamarisk tree at Beersheba and prayed to the Lord, the God who lives forever. 34And Abraham lived as a stranger in the land of the Philistines for a long time.
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Genesis 21: NCV
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The Holy Bible, New Century Version, Copyright © 2005 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.
Genesis 21
21
CHAPTER 21
1Forsooth God visited Sarah, as he promised, and [ful] filled those things, that he spake.
2And she conceived, and childed a son in her eld age, in the time wherein God before-said to her.
3And Abraham called the name of his son, whom Sarah childed to him, Isaac.
4And Abraham circumcised him in the eighth day, as God commanded to him,
5when he was of an hundred years; for Isaac was born in this age of the father.
6And Sarah said, The Lord hath made laughing to me, and whoever shall hear shall laugh with me.
7And again she said, Who should hear, and believe to Abraham, that Sarah should give sucking to a son, whom she childed to him, when he is now an eld [or old] man?
8Therefore the child increased, and was weaned; and Abraham made a great feast in the day of his weaning.
9And when Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, playing, or doing idolatry, with Isaac her son,
10she said to Abraham, Cast out this handmaid and her son; for the son of the handmaid shall not be heir with my son Isaac.
11Abraham took this heavily for his son;
12and God said to him, Be it not seen sharp to thee on the child, and on thine handmaid; all things which Sarah saith to thee, hear thou her voice, for in Isaac seed shall be called to thee;
13but also I shall make the son of the handmaid into a great folk, for he is thy seed.
14And so Abraham rose early, and took bread, and a bottle of water, and put it on Hagar’s shoulder, and he betook to her the child#21:14 Ishmael would be about 15 years old at this time., and let go her; and when she had gone, she went out of the way in the wilderness of Beersheba.
15And when the water in the bottle was ended, she cast away the child under a tree that was there;
16and she went away, and she sat even against, as far as a bow may cast; for she said, I shall not see the child dying; and she sat against, and raised [up] her voice, and wept.
17Forsooth the Lord heard the voice of the child, and the angel of the Lord called Hagar from heaven, and said, What doest thou, Hagar? do not thou dread, for God hath heard the voice of the child, from the place wherein he is.
18Rise thou, and take the child, and hold his hand; for I shall make him into a great folk.
19And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water, and she went, and filled the bottle, and she gave drink to the child;
20and God was with him, and he increased, and dwelled in wilderness, and he was made a young man an archer,
21and dwelled in the desert of Paran; and his mother took to him a wife of the land of Egypt.
22In the same time, Abimelech, and Phicol, prince of his host, said to Abraham, God is with thee in all things that thou doest;
23therefore swear thou by God that thou harm not me, and mine heirs, and my kindred; but by the mercy which I did to thee, do thou to me, and to the land in which thou livedest as a comeling.
24And Abraham said, I shall swear.
25And he blamed Abimelech for the well of water, which his servants took away by violence.
26And Abimelech answered, I wist not who did this thing, but also thou showedest not to me, and I heard not except today.
27And so Abraham took sheep and oxen, and gave to Abimelech, and both smote together a bond of peace.
28And Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock asides half.
29And Abimelech said to him, What will these seven ewe lambs mean to themselves, which thou madest stand asides half?
30And he said, Thou shalt take of mine hand seven ewe lambs, that those [or they] be into witnessing to me, for I digged this well.
31Therefore that place was called Beersheba, that is, The Well of the Oath#21:31 Beersheba also means ‘the Well of the Seven’., for ever either swore there;
32and they made bond of peace for the well of an oath. Forsooth Abimelech rose, and Phicol, the prince of his chivalry, and they turned again into the land of Palestines.
33Soothly Abraham planted a wood in Beersheba, and inwardly called there the name of [the] everlasting God;
34and he was an earth-tiller, or a comeling, of the land of Palestines in many days.
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Wycliffe’s Bible with Modern Spelling ©2017
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