ULT GEN Chapter 21

Isaac’s Birth and Circumcision

21:1-7

21 Then Yahweh visited Sarah as he had said, and Yahweh did for Sarah as he had said, 2 so that Sarah conceived and bore a son for Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time which God had told him. 3 And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore for him, Isaac. 4 And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac, a son of eight days, just as God had commanded him.

5 And Abraham was a son of 100 years when Isaac his son was born to him. 6 And Sarah said, “God has brought laughter to me! Everyone who hears will laugh with me!” 7 And she said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have born a son in his old age!”

Sarah Has Abraham Send Hagar and Ishmael Away

21:8-21

8 Then the child grew and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast on the day Isaac was weaned. 9 And Sarah saw that the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had born for Abraham, was mocking. 10 So she said to Abraham, “Drive away that slave woman and her son, because the son of that slave woman will not inherit with my son, with Isaac!” 11 And the matter was very distressing in the eyes of Abraham on account of his son. 12 But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed in your eyes because of the boy and because of your slave woman. All that Sarah says to you, listen to her voice, because in Isaac, offspring will be called yours. 13 And the son of the slave woman I will also make into a nation, because he is your offspring.”

14 Then Abraham got up early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar, putting them on her shoulder. Then he gave her the child and sent her away, and she left and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. 15 And when the water from the skin was gone, then she threw the child under one of the bushes, 16 and she went and sat down by herself at a distance, as far away as they shoot a bow, because she said, “Do not let me look on the death of the child!” And as she sat at a distance, then she lifted her voice and sobbed.

17 And God heard the voice of the boy, so the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid, because God has listened to the voice of the boy where he is there. 18 Get up, lift the boy, and hold on to him with your hand, because 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 And God was with the boy, and he grew up. And he lived in the wilderness and became a great bowman. 21 And while he was living in the wilderness of Paran, then his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

King Abimelech Makes a Covenant with Abraham

21:22-34

22 And it happened at that time that Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, spoke to Abraham, saying, “God is with you in all that you do. 23 So now, swear to me here by God if you will deal falsely with me or with my children or with my descendants. According to the kindness that I have done to you, do to me and to the land which you are sojourning in.” 24 And Abraham said, “I swear.”

25 Then Abraham complained to Abimelech on account of the well of water that the servants of Abimelech had seized. 26 Then Abimelech said, “I do not know who has done this thing. And also you did not tell me, and also I have not heard about it until today.”

27 Then Abraham took sheep and cattle, and he gave them to Abimelech, and the two of them cut a covenant. 28 Then Abraham set apart seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves. 29 So Abimelech said to Abraham, “What are they, these seven ewe lambs that you have set apart by themselves?” 30 And he said, “Because you must take the seven ewe lambs from my hand, so that it can be a witness for me that I dug this well.” 31 For that reason he called that place Beersheba, because there the two of them swore an oath.

32 So they cut the covenant at Beersheba. Then Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, got up and returned to the land of the Philistines. 33 Then he planted a tamarisk tree at Beersheba, and there he called on the name of Yahweh, the God of eternity. 34 Then Abraham sojourned in the land of the Philistines many days.