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Genesis 21

1Yahweh attended to Sarah as he had said, and Yahweh did for Sarah as he had spoken. 2Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the appointed time God had spoken of to him. 3Abraham named his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac. 4Abraham circumcised Isaac his son at eight days old, as God had commanded him. 5Abraham was a hundred years old when Isaac his son was born to him. 6Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me. Everyone who hears will laugh with me.” 7She said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne a son in his old age.” 8The child grew and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast on the day Isaac was weaned.

9Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, laughing. 10She said to Abraham, “Drive out this slave woman and her son, because this slave woman's son will not inherit with my son, with Isaac.” 11The matter was very displeasing in Abraham's eyes because of his son. 12God said to Abraham, “Do not let it be displeasing in your eyes because of the boy and your slave woman. Listen to Sarah's voice in everything she says to you, because through Isaac offspring will be named for you. 13But I will also make the slave woman's son into a nation, because he is your offspring.” 14Abraham rose early in the morning, took bread and a skin of water, and gave them to Hagar, putting them on her shoulder. He also gave her the child and sent her away. She went and wandered in the wilderness of Beer-sheba. 15When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the shrubs. 16She went and sat down opposite him, far away, about a bowshot, because she said, “Let me not see the child die.” She sat opposite him, lifted her voice, and wept.

17God heard the boy's voice. God's messenger called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is wrong, Hagar? Do not be afraid, because God has heard the boy's voice where he is. 18Get up, lift the boy, and hold him firmly with your hand, because I will make him into a great nation.” 19God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. She went, filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink. 20God was with the boy, and he grew. He lived in the wilderness and became an archer. 21He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

22At that time Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, said to Abraham, “God is with you in everything you do. 23Now swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me, my offspring, or my descendants. Show me and the land where you have resided as a foreigner the steadfast love I have shown you.” 24Abraham said, “I will swear.” 25Abraham reproved Abimelech about the well of water that Abimelech's servants had seized. 26Abimelech said, “I do not know who did this. You did not tell me, and I have not heard of it until today.” 27Abraham took flocks and herds and gave them to Abimelech, and the two of them made a covenant. 28Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock apart. 29Abimelech said to Abraham, “What are these seven ewe lambs you have set apart?” 30He said, “You are to take the seven ewe lambs from my hand, so that they may be a witness for me that I dug this well.” 31That is why he called that place Beer-sheba, because there the two of them swore an oath. 32They made a covenant at Beer-sheba. Abimelech rose with Phicol, the commander of his army, and they returned to the land of the Philistines. 33He planted a tamarisk at Beer-sheba and called there on the name of Yahweh, the Everlasting God. 34Abraham resided as a foreigner in the land of the Philistines many days.

Translation notes 4

21:1–9 — Laughter. The name Isaac and the laughter words recur. Sarah's laughter in verse 6 can be shared joy or laughter at her extraordinary situation. The same verbal root describes Hagar's son in verse 9 without an explicit object; playing and mocking are possible contextual senses. The Hebrew does not expressly say that he persecuted Isaac, so that interpretation is not inserted.

21:10–14 — Expulsion; child. The slave status, inheritance exclusion, Abraham's distress, and God's direction are all retained. The promise names both boys as Abraham's offspring while distinguishing Isaac's line. The syntax of verse 14 leaves uncertain whether the child too was placed on Hagar's shoulder; the draft takes the provisions as the shoulder-load and the boy as entrusted to her, without turning child or boy into a precise age.

21:15–21 — Hearing; rescue. Hagar weeps, while God hears the boy's voice; the draft does not change the speaker to make these clauses identical. The promise and the opening of Hagar's eyes accompany water and survival. Ishmael's name, “God hears,” resonates with the scene even though he is called the boy rather than named here.

21:22–34 — Oath; seven. Beer-sheba links the sounds of well, seven, and swearing. The seven ewe lambs attest Abraham's digging of the well; the text does not expressly make them a purchase price. The Everlasting God renders El Olam. The narrated Philistine designation is retained without replacing it with a proposed earlier population name.