Genesis 21
21
The Birth of Isaac
1#Ge 18:10; 18:14The Lord visited Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as He had spoken. 2#Gal 4:22; Heb 11:11For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time that God had spoken to him. 3#Ge 17:19Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac. 4#Ac 7:8Then Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. 5#Ge 17:17; 17:1Now Abraham was one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
6#Isa 54:1; Ge 17:17And Sarah said, “God has made me laugh. All who hear will laugh with me.” 7#Ge 18:11–12Also she said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”
Hagar and Ishmael Depart
8So the child grew and was weaned. Then Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned. 9#Ge 16:15; Gal 4:29; Ge 16:1Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking. 10#Jn 8:35; 1Jn 2:19Therefore she said to Abraham, “Throw out this slave woman and her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son, Isaac.”
11#Ge 17:18; Heb 12:11This matter was very displeasing in Abraham’s sight because of his son. 12#Heb 11:18; Ge 17:19But God said to Abraham, “Do not be upset concerning the boy and your slave wife. Whatever Sarah has said to you, listen to what she says, for in Isaac your descendants will be called. 13#Ge 21:18; 16:10; 17:20Yet I will also make a nation of the son of the slave woman, because he is your offspring.”
14So Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and sent her away with the child. So she departed and wandered in the Wilderness of Beersheba.
15When the water in the skin was gone, she placed the child under one of the shrubs. 16Then she went and sat down across from him at a distance of about a bowshot, for she said to herself, “Let me not see the death of the child.” She sat across from him, and lifted up her voice and wept.
17#Ge 16:11; Ex 3:7And God heard the boy’s voice. Then the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven and said to her, “What is the matter with you, Hagar? Do not be afraid, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. 18#Ge 21:13; 16:10Arise, pick up the boy and hold him in your hands, for I will make him a great nation.”
19#Nu 22:31Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. And she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.
20#Ge 28:15; 39:21God was with the boy; and he grew and lived in the wilderness and became an archer. 21He lived in the Wilderness of Paran, and his mother found a wife for him out of the land of Egypt.
The Treaty With Abimelek
22#Ge 20:2; 26:26Now it came to pass at that time that Abimelek and Phicol, the commander of his army, spoke to Abraham, saying, “God is with you in all that you do. 23#Jos 2:12; Ge 20:14Now therefore, swear to me by God that you will not deal deceitfully with me, or with my children, or with my descendants. Instead, according to the kindness that I have shown to you, you will show to me and to the land where you have lived.”
24Abraham said, “I will swear.”
25#Ge 26:15–22Then Abraham complained to Abimelek about a well of water that Abimelek’s servants had violently seized. 26And Abimelek said, “I do not know who has done this. You did not tell me, and I have not heard of it until today.”
27So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelek, and the two of them made a covenant. 28Then Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves. 29And Abimelek said to Abraham, “What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs that you have set by themselves?”
30#Ge 31:52And he said, “You shall take these seven ewe lambs from my hand so that they may be a witness that I have dug this well.”
31#Ge 26:33; 21:14Therefore he called that place Beersheba, because the two of them swore an oath there.
32Thus they made a covenant at Beersheba. Then Abimelek rose with Phicol, the commander of his army, and they returned to the land of the Philistines. 33#Ge 4:26; 12:8Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there he called on the name of the Lord, the Everlasting God. 34Abraham stayed in the land of the Philistines many days.
Military Bible Association
Genesis 21
21
1-4 God visited Sarah exactly as he said he would; God did to Sarah what he promised: Sarah became pregnant and gave Abraham a son in his old age, and at the very time God had set. Abraham named him Isaac. When his son was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him just as God had commanded.
5-6Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born.
Sarah said,
God has blessed me with laughter
and all who get the news will laugh with me!
7She also said,
Whoever would have suggested to Abraham
that Sarah would one day nurse a baby!
Yet here I am! I’ve given the old man a son!
8The baby grew and was weaned. Abraham threw a big party on the day Isaac was weaned.
9-10One day Sarah saw the son that Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham, poking fun at her son Isaac. She told Abraham, “Get rid of this slave woman and her son. No child of this slave is going to share inheritance with my son Isaac!”
11-13The matter gave great pain to Abraham—after all, Ishmael was his son. But God spoke to Abraham, “Don’t feel badly about the boy and your maid. Do whatever Sarah tells you. Your descendants will come through Isaac. Regarding your maid’s son, be assured that I’ll also develop a great nation from him—he’s your son, too.”
14-16Abraham got up early the next morning, got some food together and a canteen of water for Hagar, put them on her back and sent her away with the child. She wandered off into the desert of Beersheba. When the water was gone, she left the child under a shrub and went off, fifty yards or so. She said, “I can’t watch my son die.” As she sat, she broke into sobs.
17-18Meanwhile, God heard the boy crying. The angel of God called from Heaven to Hagar, “What’s wrong, Hagar? Don’t be afraid. God has heard the boy and knows the fix he’s in. Up now; go get the boy. Hold him tight. I’m going to make of him a great nation.”
19Just then God opened her eyes. She looked. She saw a well of water. She went to it and filled her canteen and gave the boy a long, cool drink.
20-21God was on the boy’s side as he grew up. He lived out in the desert and became a skilled archer. He lived in the Paran wilderness. And his mother got him a wife from Egypt.
22-23At about that same time, Abimelech and the captain of his troops, Phicol, spoke to Abraham: “No matter what you do, God is on your side. So swear to me that you won’t do anything underhanded to me or any of my family. For as long as you live here, swear that you’ll treat me and my land as well as I’ve treated you.”
24Abraham said, “I swear it.”
25-26At the same time, Abraham confronted Abimelech over the matter of a well of water that Abimelech’s servants had taken. Abimelech said, “I have no idea who did this; you never told me about it; this is the first I’ve heard of it.”
27-28So the two of them made a covenant. Abraham took sheep and cattle and gave them to Abimelech. Abraham set aside seven sheep from his flock.
29Abimelech said, “What does this mean? These seven sheep you’ve set aside.”
30Abraham said, “It means that when you accept these seven sheep, you take it as proof that I dug this well, that it’s my well.”
31-32That’s how the place got named Beersheba (the Oath-Well), because the two of them swore a covenant oath there. After they had made the covenant at Beersheba, Abimelech and his commander, Phicol, left and went back to Philistine territory.
33-34Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and worshiped God there, praying to the Eternal God. Abraham lived in Philistine country for a long time.
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.