Genesis 21
Big idea: The promise arrives. Yahweh visits Sarah exactly as he said, at the set time he had spoken, and a hundred-year-old man holds a son named Laughter. But the joy is immediately complicated: a weaning feast, a look from Ishmael, and Sarah demanding that the slave and her son be cast out. Abraham is grieved — and God, remarkably, tells him to do what Sarah says, while promising to make a nation of the other boy too. So Hagar is sent into the wilderness a second time, and a second time God finds her there: he hears the boy's voice, opens her eyes to a well that was already there, and stays with him as he grows. The chapter closes with Abraham making a treaty over a disputed well and planting a tree at Beersheba.
Chapter 21 gives Abraham the son he waited twenty-five years for, and settles him at Beersheba. Chapter 22 opens with God asking for that son back.
21:1–8 — Yahweh visited Sarah
Yahweh does exactly what he said, at exactly the time he set: Sarah conceives and bears a son in Abraham's old age. He names him Isaac and circumcises him on the eighth day, as commanded. Sarah's laugh changes register — God has made me laugh, and everyone who hears will laugh with me. Abraham is a hundred; the boy grows and is weaned, and there is a great feast.
1 Yahweh visited Sarah as he had said, and Yahweh did to Sarah as he had spoken. 2 Sarah conceived, and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. 3 Abraham called his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac. 4 Abraham circumcised his son, Isaac, when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. 5 Abraham was one hundred years old when his son, Isaac, was born to him. 6 Sarah said, “God has made me laugh. Everyone who hears will laugh with me.” 7 She said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? For I have borne him a son in his old age.” 8 The child grew and was weaned. Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.
21:9–21 — Cast out — and found again
Sarah sees Ishmael mocking and demands that he and Hagar be cast out so he will not share Isaac's inheritance. Abraham is deeply grieved, but God tells him to listen to Sarah — the line runs through Isaac — while promising a nation from Ishmael too. Sent off with bread and a skin of water, Hagar runs out of water in the wilderness and puts the boy under a bush, unable to watch him die. God hears the boy's voice, calls to Hagar, repeats the promise, and opens her eyes to a well. God is with the boy as he grows.
9 Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking. 10 Therefore 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.” 11 The thing was very grievous in Abraham’s sight on account of his son. 12 God 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. 13 I will also make a nation of the son of the servant, because he is your child.” 14 Abraham 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. 15 The water in the container was spent, and she put the child under one of the shrubs. 16 She 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. 17 God heard the voice of the boy. The angel of God called to Hagar out of the sky, and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Don’t be afraid. For God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. 18 Get up, lift up the boy, and hold him with your hand. For I will make him a great nation.” 19 God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. She went, filled the container with water, and gave the boy a drink. 20 God was with the boy, and he grew. He lived in the wilderness, and as he grew up, he became an archer. 21 He lived in the wilderness of Paran. His mother got a wife for him out of the land of Egypt.
21:22–34 — The oath at Beersheba
Abimelech and his army commander come to Abraham with an observation — God is with you in all you do — and a request: swear you will not deal falsely with me or my descendants. Abraham swears, then raises a grievance about a well Abimelech's servants had seized. They make a covenant, sealed by seven ewe lambs Abraham sets apart as a witness that he dug the well. The place is named Beersheba, the well of the oath, and Abraham plants a tamarisk there and calls on the name of Yahweh, the Everlasting God.
22 At that time, Abimelech and Phicol the captain of his army spoke to Abraham, saying, “God is with you in all that you do. 23 Now, 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.” 24 Abraham said, “I will swear.” 25 Abraham complained to Abimelech because of a water well, which Abimelech’s servants had violently taken away. 26 Abimelech said, “I don’t know who has done this thing. You didn’t tell me, and I didn’t hear of it until today.” 27 Abraham took sheep and cattle, and gave them to Abimelech. Those two made a covenant. 28 Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves. 29 Abimelech said to Abraham, “What do these seven ewe lambs, which you have set by themselves, mean?” 30 He 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.” 31 Therefore he called that place Beersheba, because they both swore an oath there. 32 So 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. 33 Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there he called on the name of Yahweh, the Everlasting God. 34 Abraham lived as a foreigner in the land of the Philistines many days.
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).