Genesis 21

1The LORD took note of Sarah as he had said he would, and the LORD carried out for Sarah what he had spoken. 2Sarah conceived, and when Abraham was old she gave him a son, at the set time God had told him of. 3Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son who had been born to him, the son Sarah bore him. 4Abraham circumcised his son Isaac on the eighth day after his birth, following God’s command. 5Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born. 6Sarah said, “God has given me reason to laugh, and all who hear of it will share my laughter.” 7She went on, “Who would have dared to tell Abraham, ‘Sarah will be nursing babies’? But now, when he is old, I have borne him a son!” 8The boy grew older, and Abraham celebrated the day of his weaning with a large feast. 9Then Sarah saw the son that Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham poking fun. 10and she told Abraham, “Send this slave woman and her boy away! No son of this slave is going to be an heir alongside my son Isaac.” 11This grieved Abraham deeply, since it was his own son at stake. 12But God told Abraham, “Do not be troubled about the boy and your servant. Do as Sarah says, in everything. The descendants who will carry your name will come through Isaac. 13But I will make the slave woman’s son into a nation as well, because he too is your child.” 14Abraham was up at dawn. He took food and a skin of water and handed them to Hagar, setting them on her shoulder; he handed over the boy too, and sent her away. She left and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. 15Once the skin had no water left, she laid the boy down under one of the shrubs. 16She moved away and sat down across from him at about the distance an arrow flies. “I will not watch while the boy dies,” she said to herself. There she sat, facing him from a distance, and she wept aloud. 17God heard the boy’s voice, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven. “What is wrong, Hagar?” he said. “Do not be afraid. God has heard the boy’s voice there where he lies. 18Get up, raise the boy to his feet and take him firmly by the hand. I will make a great nation of him.” 19God opened her eyes, and there she saw a well. She went over, filled the skin and gave the boy water to drink. 20God stayed with the boy while he grew. He settled in the wilderness and became an expert with the bow. 21He made his home in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother found him a wife from Egypt.

22Around that time Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, spoke to Abraham: “God is with you in whatever you do. 23So swear to me by God, here and now, that you will never play me false, nor my children, nor their descendants after them. I have kept faith with you; keep faith in the same way with me and with this land where you have made your home as a foreigner.” 24Abraham replied, “I give you my oath.” 25Abraham, however, took Abimelech to task over a well that Abimelech’s men had taken from him by force. 26Abimelech said, “I have no idea who did this. You never told me, and this is the first I have heard of it.” 27Abraham then presented Abimelech with sheep and cattle, and the two of them entered into a covenant. 28Then Abraham took seven young ewes from the flock and placed them to one side. 29Abimelech asked Abraham, “Why have you put these seven lambs off to one side?” 30He answered, “Take these seven lambs from me. They will stand as my proof that I am the one who dug this well.” 31That is why the place was named Beersheba: the two of them took an oath there. 32Once the covenant at Beersheba was made, Abimelech and his army commander Phicol got up and went home to the land of the Philistines. 33Abraham planted a tamarisk at Beersheba. There he worshiped, calling on the name of the LORD, God Everlasting. 34For a long time after that, Abraham lived as a resident foreigner in the land of the Philistines.