The Birth of Isaac
1. Now the LORD attended to Sarah as He had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what He had promised.
2. So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised.
3. Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him.
4. And when his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God had commanded him.
5. Now Sarah declared, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears of this will laugh with me.”
6. 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!”
7. And the child grew and was weaned, and Abraham held a great feast on the day Isaac was weaned.
Sarah Turns against Hagar
8. But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking her son,
9. and she said to Abraham, “Expel the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac!”
10. Now this matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son.
11. But God said to him, “Do not be distressed because of the boy and your slave woman. Listen to everything that Sarah tells you, for through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.
12. But I will also make a nation of the son of the slave woman, because he is your offspring.”
13. Early the next morning, Abraham got up and sent Hagar on her way, along with her son. And she wandered aimlessly in the Wilderness of Beersheba.
14. When the water in the skin was gone, she left the boy under one of the bushes
15. and went and sat down about a bowshot away, for she said, “I cannot bear to watch the boy die!” So as she sat nearby, she lifted up her voice and wept.
16. Then God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, “What is wrong, Hagar? Do not be afraid, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he lies.
17. Get up, lift the boy, and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.”
18. 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.
19. And God was with the boy as he grew up; he lived in the wilderness and became a skillful archer.
20. He settled in the Wilderness of Paran, and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
21. At that time Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army said to Abraham, “God is with you in all that you do.
The Covenant at Beersheba
22. Now swear to me here before God that you will not deal falsely with me or my children or descendants. Show to me and to the country where you reside the same kindness that I have shown to you.”
23. And Abraham said, “I swear it.”
24. But Abraham complained to Abimelech about a well that Abimelech’s servants had seized.
25. “I do not know who has done this,” said Abimelech. “You did not tell me, so I have not heard about it until today.”
26. Then Abraham brought sheep and cattle and gave them to Abimelech, and the two of them made a covenant.
27. And Abraham set apart seven ewe lambs from the flock,
28. and Abimelech asked him, “What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs you have set apart?”
29. Abraham replied, “You are to accept these seven ewe lambs from my hand as a witness that I dug this well.”
30. So that place was called Beersheba, because it was there that the two of them swore an oath.
31. After they had made the covenant at Beersheba, Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army got up and returned to the land of the Philistines.
32. And Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there he called upon the name of the LORD, the Eternal God.
33. And Abraham lived in the land of the Philistines for many days.