Genesis 21

The Birth of Isaac

1 Now the LORD was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what he had promised.
2 Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him.
3 Abraham gave the name Isaac[a] to the son Sarah bore him.
4 When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him.
5 Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
6 Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.”
7 And she added, “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 Sent Away

8 The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast.
9 But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking,
10 and she said to Abraham, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.”
11 The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son.
12 But God said to him, “Do not be so distressed about the boy and your slave woman. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring[b] will be reckoned.
13 I will make the son of the slave into a nation also, because he is your offspring.”
14 Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the Desert of Beersheba.
15 When the water in the skin was gone, she put the boy under one of the bushes.
16 Then she went off and sat down about a bowshot away, for she thought, “I cannot watch the boy die.” And as she sat there, she[c] began to sob.
17 God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there.
18 Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.”
19 Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.
20 God was with the boy as he grew up. He lived in the desert and became an archer.
21 While he was living in the Desert of Paran, his mother got a wife for him from Egypt.

The Treaty at Beersheba

22 At that time Abimelek and Phicol the commander of his forces said to Abraham, “God is with you in everything you do.
23 Now swear to me here before God that you will not deal falsely with me or my children or my descendants. Show to me and the country where you now reside as a foreigner the same kindness I have shown to you.”
24 Abraham said, “I swear it.”
25 Then Abraham complained to Abimelek about a well of water that Abimelek’s servants had seized.
26 But Abimelek said, “I don’t know who has done this. You did not tell me, and I heard about it only today.”
27 So Abraham brought sheep and cattle and gave them to Abimelek, and the two men made a treaty.
28 Abraham set apart seven ewe lambs from the flock,
29 and Abimelek asked Abraham, “What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs you have set apart by themselves?”
30 He replied, “Accept these seven lambs from my hand as a witness that I dug this well.”
31 So that place was called Beersheba,[d] because the two men swore an oath there.
32 After the treaty had been made at Beersheba, Abimelek and Phicol the commander of his forces returned to the land of the Philistines.
33 Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there he called on the name of the LORD, the Eternal God.
34 And Abraham stayed in the land of the Philistines for a long time.

Cross References 51

  • 1. 1 Samuel 2:21
  • 2. S Genesis 8:1; S Genesis 17:16,21; Genesis 18:14; Galatians 4:23; Hebrews 11:11
  • 3. S Genesis 17:19; S Genesis 30:6
  • 4. Galatians 4:22; Hebrews 11:11
  • 5. S Genesis 18:10
  • 6. S Genesis 16:11; S Genesis 17:19; Joshua 24:3
  • 7. Genesis 17:10,12; Acts 7:8
  • 8. S Genesis 12:4; Hebrews 6:15
  • 9. Genesis 17:17; Job 8:21; Psalms 126:2; Isaiah 12:6; Isaiah 35:2; Isaiah 44:23; Isaiah 52:9; Isaiah 54:1
  • 10. S Genesis 17:17
  • 11. 1 Samuel 1:23
  • 12. S Genesis 16:15
  • 13. Genesis 39:14; Galatians 4:29
  • 14. Genesis 39:17
  • 15. Genesis 25:6; Galatians 4:30*
  • 16. Genesis 17:18
  • 17. Matthew 1:2; Romans 9:7*; Hebrews 11:18*
  • 18. ver 18; S Genesis 13:16
  • 19. S Genesis 16:1
  • 20. ver 31,32; Genesis 22:19; Genesis 26:33; Genesis 28:10; Genesis 46:1,5; Joshua 15:28; Joshua 19:2; Judges 20:1; 1 Samuel 3:20; 1 Chronicles 4:28; Nehemiah 11:27
  • 21. Jeremiah 6:26; Amos 8:10; Zechariah 12:10
  • 22. Exodus 3:7; Numbers 20:16; Deuteronomy 26:7; Psalms 6:8
  • 23. S Genesis 16:7
  • 24. Genesis 22:11,15
  • 25. S Genesis 15:1
  • 26. ver 13; S Genesis 17:20
  • 27. Numbers 22:31
  • 28. S Genesis 16:7
  • 29. Genesis 26:3,24; Genesis 28:15; Genesis 39:2,21,23; Luke 1:66
  • 30. S Genesis 14:6
  • 31. Genesis 24:4,38; Genesis 28:2; Genesis 34:4,8; Judges 14:2
  • 32. S Genesis 20:2
  • 33. ver 32; Genesis 26:26
  • 34. ver 23; Genesis 26:28; Genesis 28:15; Genesis 31:3,5,42; Genesis 39:2,3; 1 Samuel 3:19; 1 Samuel 16:18; 2 Chronicles 1:1; Psalms 46:7; Isaiah 7:14; Isaiah 8:8,10; Isaiah 41:10; Isaiah 43:5
  • 35. ver 31; Genesis 25:33; Genesis 26:31; Genesis 31:53; Joshua 2:12; 1 Kings 2:8
  • 36. 1 Samuel 24:21
  • 37. S ver 22; Joshua 2:12
  • 38. Ge 26:15,18,20-22
  • 39. ver 31,32; Genesis 26:28,31; Genesis 31:44,53
  • 40. Ge 31:44,47,48,50,52; Jos 22:27,28,34; Joshua 24:27; Isaiah 19:20; Malachi 2:14
  • 41. ver 25; Genesis 26:25,32
  • 42. S ver 14; Genesis 26:33
  • 43. S ver 23,S 27
  • 44. S ver 27
  • 45. S ver 14
  • 46. S ver 22
  • 47. S Genesis 10:14
  • 48. 1 Samuel 22:6; 1 Samuel 31:13
  • 49. S Genesis 4:26
  • 50. Exodus 15:18; Deuteronomy 32:40; Deuteronomy 33:27; Job 36:26; Psalms 10:16; Psalms 45:6; Psalms 90:2; Psalms 93:2; Psalms 102:24; Psalms 103:19; Psalms 146:10; Isaiah 40:28; Jeremiah 10:10; Habakkuk 1:12; Habakkuk 3:6; Hebrews 13:8
  • 51. S Genesis 10:14

Footnotes 4

  • [a]. "Isaac" means "he laughs."
  • [b]. Or "seed"
  • [c]. Hebrew; Septuagint "the child"
  • [d]. "Beersheba" can mean "well of seven" and "well of the oath."

Genesis 21 Commentaries

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