Genesis 21
21
Finally, a Baby for Sarah
1The Lord came back to visit Sarah as he said he would, and he kept his promise to her. 2At exactly the time God said it would happen, Sarah became pregnant and gave birth to a son for Abraham in his old age. 3Abraham named his son Isaac.#21:3 Isaac This name means “he laughs” or “he is happy.” 4Abraham did what God commanded and circumcised Isaac when he was eight days old.
5Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born. 6Sarah said, “God has made me happy, and everyone who hears about this will be happy with me. 7No one thought that I, Sarah, would be able to have Abraham’s child. But I have given Abraham a son, even though he is old.”
Trouble at Home
8Isaac continued to grow, and soon he was old enough to begin eating solid food. So Abraham gave a big party. 9Sarah saw Hagar’s son playing. (Hagar was the Egyptian slave woman who gave birth to Abraham’s first son.) 10Sarah said to Abraham, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son. Send them away! When we die, our son Isaac will get everything we have. I don’t want that slave woman’s son sharing these things with my son Isaac!”
11This upset Abraham very much. He was worried about his son Ishmael. 12But God said to Abraham, “Don’t worry about the boy and the slave woman. Do what Sarah wants. Your descendants will be those who come through Isaac. 13But I will also bless the son of your slave woman. He is your son, so I will make a great nation from his family also.”
14Early the next morning Abraham took some food and water and gave them to Hagar. She carried them and left with her boy. She left that place and wandered in the desert of Beersheba.
15After some time, when all their drinking water was gone, Hagar put her son under a bush. 16Then she walked a short distance away and sat down. She thought her son would die because there was no water. She did not want to watch him die. 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. 18Go help the boy. Hold his hand and lead him. I will make him the father of many people.”
19Then God allowed Hagar to see a well of water. So she went to the well and filled her bag with water. Then she gave water to the boy to drink.
20God continued to be with the boy while he grew up. Ishmael lived in the desert and became a hunter. He learned to shoot a bow very well. 21His mother found a wife for him in Egypt. They continued to live in the Paran desert.
Abraham’s Bargain With Abimelech
22Then Abimelech and Phicol spoke with Abraham. Phicol was the commander of Abimelech’s army. They said to Abraham, “God is with you in everything you do. 23So make a promise to me here before God. Promise that you will be fair with me and with my children. Promise that you will be kind to me and this country where you have lived. Promise that you will be as kind to me as I have been to you.”
24And Abraham said, “I promise to treat you the same way you have treated me.” 25Then Abraham complained to Abimelech because Abimelech’s servants had captured a well of water.
26But Abimelech said, “I don’t know who did this. You never told me about this before today!”
27So Abraham and Abimelech made an agreement. Abraham gave Abimelech some sheep and cattle as proof of the agreement. 28Abraham also put seven#21:28 seven The Hebrew word for “seven” is like the Hebrew word for “oath” or “promise,” and it is like the last part of the name Beersheba. The seven animals were proof of this promise. female lambs in front of Abimelech.
29Abimelech asked Abraham, “Why did you put these seven female lambs by themselves?”
30Abraham answered, “When you accept these lambs from me, it will be proof that I dug this well.”
31So after that, the well was called Beersheba.#21:31 Beersheba This name means “well of the oath.” Abraham gave the well this name because it was the place where they made a promise to each other.
32So Abraham and Abimelech made an agreement at Beersheba. Then Abimelech and Phicol, his military commander, went back to the country of the Philistines.
33Abraham planted a special tree at Beersheba and prayed to the Lord, the God who lives forever. 34And Abraham lived as a stranger for a long time in the country of the Philistines.
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Genesis 21: ERV
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© 1987, 2004 Bible League International
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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