(BA) Genesis 21

...

Sarah gives birth to Isaac. Sarah ejects Hagar and Ishmael from the household, and Ishmael grows up in the wilderness. Abraham makes a covenant with a Philistine leader.

The text below is adapted from the ASV.

1 And Yahweh visited Sarah as he had said, and Yahweh did for Sarah as he had spoken. 2 And Sarah conceived, and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. 3 And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac. 4 And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. 5 And Abraham was a hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born to him. 6 And Sarah said, God has made me laugh. Everyone who hears will laugh with me.

7 And she said, Who would have said to Abraham, that Sarah would nurse children? For I have borne him a son in his old age.

8 And the child grew, and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. 9 And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking. 10 Therefore she said to Abraham, Cast out this slave and her son, because the son of his slave shall not be hair with my son Isaac. 11 And the matter was very grievous in Abraham's site on account of his son.

12 And God said to Abraham, Let it not be grievous in your sight because of the lad, and because of your slave. In all that Sarah says to you, listen to her voice, for in Isaac your seed will be called. 13 And also the son of the slave I will make a nation, because he is your seed. 14 And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away. And she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beer Sheba. 15 And the water in the skin was used up, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs. 16 And she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about a bowshot, because she said, Do not let me see the death of the child. And she sat opposite him, and lifted up her voice, and wept.

17 And God heard the voice of the lad, and the angel of God called to Hagar from the sky, and said to her, What troubles you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is. 18 Get up, pick up the lad, and hold him in your hand, for I will make him a great nation. 19 And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water, and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad a drink. 20 And God was with the lad, and he grew, and he dwelt in the wilderness, and became, as he grew up, an archer. 21 And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took him a wife from the land of Egypt.

22 And then, at that time, Abimelech and Phicol the captain of his army spoke to Abraham, saying, God is with you in all that you do. 23 Now therefore, swear to me here by God that you will not deal treacherously with me, nor with my offspring, nor with my posterity. But, just as I have treated you with kindness, do the same to me, and to the land where you are a guest.

24 And Abraham said, I will swear. 25 And Abraham rebuked Abimelech because of the well of water which Abimelech's servants had violently seized.

26 And Abimelech said, I do not know who has done this thing, nor did you tell me, nor did I hear of it before today. 27 And Abraham took sheep and oxen, and gave them to Abimelech, and the two of them made a covenant. 28 And Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves.

29 And Abimelech said to Abraham, What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs you have set by themselves?

30 And he said, These seven ewe lambs you shall take from my hand, that it may be a witness for me, that I have dug this well. 31 Therefore he called that place Beer Sheba, because there they both swore. 32 So they made a covenant at Beer Sheba, and Abimelech rose up, and Phicol the captain of his army, and they returned into the land of the Philistines. 33 And he planted a tamarisk tree in Beer Sheba, and called there on the name of Yahweh, the Everlasting God. 34 And Abraham lived as a guest in the land of the Philistines many years.

(21:3) "Isaac". In Hebrew, the name appears to be related to the verb for laughter.

(21:5) "a hundred". Therefore Ishmael is fourteen, if we work from the chronology established in Genesis 16:16. On one method of adding up the years, this placed the birth of Isaac in the year 2046 from Creation. Compare the note on Genesis 11:26.

(21:6) "made me laugh". ASV notes: "Or, prepared laughter for me. Either way, this is yet another of the uses of the key verb "laugh" when used in stories about Isaac.

(21:9) "mocking". Whether this word should be translate "mocking" or something else, there have been several opinions over what sort of behavior it refers to. As an alternate reading, the ASV notes supply "playing". In any case, the word is etymologically related to "laughter", and is yet another of the times that this root is introduced into stories about Isaac.

(21:13) "and the child". If we take this to mean that Abraham put Ishmael on Hagar's shoulder this is at odds with the chronology of 16:16 and 21:5, which imply that Ishmael is over fourteen years old. On the other hand, there will be other details in this story that imply a younger Ishmael.

(21:15) "cast". It is difficult to imagine a woman "casting" a teenager, perhaps sixteen years old, under a shrub.

(21:16) "the death of the child". The idea that the child would die before Hagar is another detail consistent with a very young Ishmael in this story.

(21:18) "pick up the lad, and hold him in your hand". More wording suggesting that Ishmael is very young.

(21:31) "Beer Sheba" is here interpreted as "Well of Oath" or "Well of Seven".

ASV. The American Standard Version, as printed in 1901 by Thomas Nelson and Sons.

This page is released under the CC0 1.0 license.