13 October 2017
This is part of a translation project. This is a very rough draft, basically a lightly edited version of the RV. For the notes that accompany this page, see here.
Translation
1 And Yahweh looked after Sarah as he had said, and Yahweh did for Sarah as he had promised. 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 the son that 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 one 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 should nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age. 8 And the child great, 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, which she had borne to Abraham, mocking. 10 So she said to Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son, because the son of this bondwoman must not be heir alongside my son Isaac. 11 And the matter was very grievous in Abraham’s sight on account of his son.
12 And God said to Abraham, Do not let it be grievous in your sight because of the land and because of your bondwoman. Listen to everything that Sarah tells you, because in Isaac your seed will be called. 13 And also of the son of the bondwoman 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, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beer-sheba. 15 And the water in the bottle was spent, 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, Let me not 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? Do not be afraid, because God has heard the voice of the lad where he is. 18 Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in your hand, because 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 skin with water, and gave the lad to drink. 20 And God was with the lad, and he grew, and he dwelt in the wilderness and became an archer. 21 And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took him a wife from the land of Egypt.
22 Now, 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, then, swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me, nor with my posterity nor with my descendants, but just I have dealt faithfully with you, you will deal with me, and with the land where you have sojourned.
24 And Abraham said, I will swear. 25 And Abraham rebuked Abimelech because of the well of water which Abimelech’s servants had seized.
26 And Abimelech said, I do not know who did this thing. Nor did you tell me, nor did I here 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 which you have set by themselves?
30 And he said, Take these seven ewe lambs from my hand, to be a witness for me that I have dug this well. 31 Therefore he called that place Beer-sheba. And Abimelech rose up, and Phicol the captain of his army, and they returned to the land of the Philistines. 32 So they made a covenant at Beer-sheba, because the two of them swore.
33 And he planted a tamarisk tree in Beer-sheba, and called there on the name of Yahweh, El Olam. 34 And Abraham sojourned in the land of the Philistines many days.