The LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did to Sarah
as he had promised. And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in
his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham
called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore
him, Isaac. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight
days old, as God had commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old
when his son Isaac was born to him. And Sarah said, “God has made
laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me.” And she
said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse
children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”
And the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast
on the day that Isaac was weaned. But Sarah saw the son of Hagar
the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, laughing. So she said
to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of
this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.” And the
thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son. But
God said to Abraham, “Be not displeased because of the boy and
because of your slave woman. Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she
tells you, for through Isaac shall your offspring be named. And I
will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he
is your offspring.” So Abraham rose early in the morning and took
bread and a skin of water and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her
shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed
and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.
When the water in the skin was gone, she put the child under one
of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way
off, about the distance of a bowshot, for she said, “Let me not
look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she
lifted up her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the boy,
and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her,
“What troubles you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of
the boy where he is. Up! Lift up the boy, and hold him fast with
your hand, for I will make him into a great nation.” Then God
opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. And she went and
filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. And God was
with the boy, and he grew up. He lived in the wilderness and became
an expert with the bow. He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and
his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
At that time Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army said
to Abraham, “God is with you in all that you do. Now therefore
swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or
with my descendants or with my posterity, but as I have dealt
kindly with you, so you will deal with me and with the land where
you have sojourned.” And Abraham said, “I will swear.”
When Abraham reproved Abimelech about a well of water that
Abimelech's servants had seized, Abimelech said, “I do not know who
has done this thing; you did not tell me, and I have not heard of
it until today.” So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to
Abimelech, and the two men made a covenant. Abraham set seven ewe
lambs of the flock apart. And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What is
the meaning of these seven ewe lambs that you have set apart?” He
said, “These seven ewe lambs you will take from my hand, that this
may be a witness for me that I dug this well.” Therefore that place
was called Beersheba, because there both of them swore an oath. So
they made a covenant at Beersheba. Then Abimelech and Phicol the
commander of his army rose up and returned to the land of the
Philistines. Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and
called there on the name of the LORD, the Everlasting God. And
Abraham sojourned many days in the land of the Philistines.
