Genesis Chapter 21 — The Birth of Isaac and the Covenant at Beersheba

¹The LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did to Sarah as he had spoken.

²Sarah conceived, and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.

³Abraham called his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac.*Isaac means “He laughs”.

⁴Abraham circumcised his son, Isaac, when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him.

⁵Abraham was one hundred years old when his son, Isaac, was born to him.

⁶Sarah said, “God has made me laugh. Everyone who hears will laugh with me.”

⁷She said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? For I have borne him a son in his old age.”

⁸The child grew and was weaned. Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.

⁹Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking.

¹⁰Therefore 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.”

¹¹The thing was very grievous in Abraham’s sight on account of his son.

¹²God 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.

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

¹⁴Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread and a container 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.

¹⁵The water in the container was spent, and she put the child under one of the shrubs.

¹⁶She 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 opposite him, and lifted up her voice, and wept.

¹⁷God heard the voice of the boy.

¹⁸Get up, lift up the boy, and hold him with your hand. For I will make him a great nation.”

¹⁹God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. She went, filled the container with water, and gave the boy a drink.

²⁰God was with the boy, and he grew. He lived in the wilderness, and as he grew up, he became an archer.

²¹He lived in the wilderness of Paran. His mother got a wife for him out of the land of Egypt.

²²At that time, Abimelech and Phicol the captain of his army spoke to Abraham, saying, “God is with you in all that you do.

²³Now, 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.”

²⁴Abraham said, “I will swear.”

²⁵Abraham complained to Abimelech because of a water well, which Abimelech’s servants had violently taken away.

²⁶Abimelech said, “I don’t know who has done this thing. You didn’t tell me, and I didn’t hear of it until today.”

²⁷Abraham took sheep and cattle, and gave them to Abimelech. Those two made a covenant.

²⁸Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves.

²⁹Abimelech said to Abraham, “What do these seven ewe lambs, which you have set by themselves, mean?”

³⁰He 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.”

³¹Therefore he called that place Beersheba,†Beersheba can mean “well of the oath” or “well of seven”. because they both swore an oath there.

³²So 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.

³³Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there he called on the name of the LORD,‡LORD or GOD in all caps is from the Hebrew יהוה Yahweh except when otherwise noted as being from the short form יה Yah. the Everlasting God.

³⁴Abraham lived as a foreigner in the land of the Philistines many days.