Genesis 21

The LORD came to help Sarah, just as he had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what he had promised.

1And the LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did unto Sarah as he had spoken.

NoteLORD printed in capitals marks the spot where the Hebrew text has God's personal name, four consonants usually written YHWH. Jewish readers said the ordinary word for "Lord" aloud in its place, and English translations have followed that custom ever since.

2Sarah became pregnant and gave birth to a son for Abraham when he was old. It happened at the exact time God had told him it would.

2For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.

3Abraham named the son who was born to him, the son Sarah gave birth to, Isaac.

3And Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac.

NoteIsaac stands for a Hebrew name meaning roughly "he laughs" or "he will laugh." The laughing in verses 6 and 9, and the laughter of Abraham and Sarah when the birth was first promised, all play on the same root.

4When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, just as God had commanded him.

4And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac being eight days old, as God had commanded him.

NoteCircumcision is the cutting away of the foreskin of the penis. In Abraham's household it was the bodily mark of the agreement between God and his family, and chapter 17 fixed the eighth day after birth as the time for it.

5Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.

5And Abraham was an hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born unto him.

6Sarah said, "God has made me laugh, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me."

6And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me.

NoteSarah's words face two ways at once. The Hebrew can mean that everyone who hears will share her joy, or that everyone will laugh at the idea of a woman her age with a newborn. The wording does not settle which.

7She also said, "Who would ever have told Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have given him a son in his old age."

7And she said, Who would have said unto Abraham, that Sarah should have given children suck? for I have born him a son in his old age.

8The child grew and was weaned. On the day Isaac was weaned, Abraham gave a great feast.

8And the child grew, and was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned.

NoteChildren were normally nursed for two to three years, so Isaac would have been a toddler by now. Surviving to weaning was a genuine milestone in a world of high infant death, and the feast marks it.

9Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, the son Hagar had given birth to for Abraham, and he was mocking.

9And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking.

NoteThe word translated "mocking" comes from the same root as "laugh" and Isaac's name. It can mean playing, joking, laughing, or making fun of someone, and the Hebrew does not say who was on the receiving end. Some ancient copies add "with her son Isaac." Translators have to pick a sense; the Hebrew leaves it open.

10So she said to Abraham, "Drive out this slave woman and her son. The son of this slave woman will not share the inheritance with my son, with Isaac."

10Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac.

NoteHagar was Sarah's Egyptian slave, handed to Abraham to bear a child on Sarah's behalf while Sarah was childless (chapter 16). Under the customs of the time a son born that way could hold a claim on his father's estate, which is what Sarah is moving to shut down.

11This troubled Abraham very much, because it concerned his son.

11And the thing was very grievous in Abraham’s sight because of his son.

12But God said to Abraham, "Do not be troubled about the boy or about your slave woman. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your descendants will be counted.

12And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called.

Note"Your descendants will be counted through Isaac" means the line that carries the promise is traced through Isaac. It is a statement about which branch is reckoned as the line of inheritance, not a denial that Abraham's other sons are his.

13I will also make a nation out of the son of the slave woman, because he is your child."

13And also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed.

14Early the next morning Abraham got up and took bread and a skin of water. He put them on Hagar's shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. She left and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.

14And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away: and she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.

NoteA skin of water is a bag made from a whole animal hide, sewn shut, the ordinary water container of the region. "Wilderness" means dry open country used for grazing, not sand dunes: land you can cross and pasture animals in, but not farm. The Hebrew word order also leaves it unclear whether Abraham put only the bread and water on Hagar's shoulder or the child as well; and on the chapter's own arithmetic Ishmael would be in his mid-teens by now, though verses 15 to 18 speak of him as a small boy.

15When the water in the skin was gone, she put the child under one of the bushes.

15And the water was spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs.

16Then she went and sat down across from him, some distance away, about as far as an arrow can be shot. She said, "Let me not watch the child die." As she sat there across from him, she cried out loud and wept.

16And she went, and sat her down over against him a good way off, as it were a bow shot: for she said, Let me not see the death of the child. And she sat over against him, and lift up her voice, and wept.

NoteA bowshot was a common rough measure of distance, about as far as an archer could send an arrow, something like a hundred yards.

17God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, "What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid. God has heard the voice of the boy where he is lying.

17And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is.

Note"Angel" translates a Hebrew word that simply means messenger. Note too that the chapter never gives the boy's name: he is "the lad" or "the son of the slave woman" throughout. Ishmael's name means "God hears," and the repeated line that God heard the boy's voice plays on the name without saying it.

18Get up, lift the boy up, and take hold of him with your hand, because I will make him into a great nation."

18Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand; for I will make him a great nation.

19Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. She went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.

19And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink.

20God was with the boy. He grew up, lived in the wilderness, and became an archer.

20And God was with the lad; and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer.

21He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother got him a wife from the land of Egypt.

21And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran: and his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt.

NoteParan is the dry region south of Canaan, in the area of the Sinai peninsula. Hagar was Egyptian, so choosing an Egyptian wife for her son keeps the marriage inside her own people, which was the normal expectation; arranging a son's marriage was a parent's job.

22At that time Abimelech and Phichol, the commander of his army, said to Abraham, "God is with you in everything you do.

22And it came to pass at that time, that Abimelech and Phichol the chief captain of his host spake unto Abraham, saying, God is with thee in all that thou doest:

NoteAbimelech is the local king of Gerar, the man Abraham dealt with in chapter 20. The name means something like "my father is king" and may be a royal title rather than a personal name. Phichol is his army commander, present as a witness to the treaty.

23So swear to me here before God that you will not deal falsely with me, or with my children, or with my descendants. Treat me and the land where you have lived as a foreigner with the same kindness I have shown you."

23Now therefore swear unto me here by God that thou wilt not deal falsely with me, nor with my son, nor with my son’s son: but according to the kindness that I have done unto thee, thou shalt do unto me, and to the land wherein thou hast sojourned.

NoteAbraham lives here as a resident foreigner: he owns flocks but no land, and depends on the goodwill of the local ruler. That is why a sworn treaty matters so much to him. Swearing "before God" made God the witness to the promise and the one who would punish a breach, since there was no court to appeal to.

24Abraham said, "I swear it."

24And Abraham said, I will swear.

25Then Abraham confronted Abimelech about a well of water that Abimelech's servants had seized by force.

25And Abraham reproved Abimelech because of a well of water, which Abimelech’s servants had violently taken away.

NoteIn dry country a dug well is serious property, and whoever controls the well effectively controls the grazing land around it. Seizing one is an act of aggression, not petty theft.

26Abimelech said, "I do not know who did this. You did not tell me, and I had not heard about it until today."

26And Abimelech said, I wot not who hath done this thing: neither didst thou tell me, neither yet heard I of it, but to day.

27So Abraham took sheep and cattle and gave them to Abimelech, and the two of them made a covenant.

27And Abraham took sheep and oxen, and gave them unto Abimelech; and both of them made a covenant.

NoteA covenant is a formal binding agreement, closer to a treaty between two parties than to a modern contract. Handing over animals both sealed the agreement and served as its visible record, since nothing was written down.

28Abraham set seven female lambs from the flock off by themselves.

28And Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves.

NoteSeven is the number of oath-taking in Hebrew: the verb "to swear" is built on the same consonants as the word "seven." The lambs are set aside as the physical token of the sworn agreement.

29Abimelech asked Abraham, "What do these seven female lambs mean that you have set off by themselves?"

29And Abimelech said unto Abraham, What mean these seven ewe lambs which thou hast set by themselves?

30He answered, "You are to accept these seven female lambs from my hand, so that they will be a witness for me that I dug this well."

30And he said, For these seven ewe lambs shalt thou take of my hand, that they may be a witness unto me, that I have digged this well.

NoteAccepting the lambs from Abraham's hand is the public act by which Abimelech acknowledges the well is Abraham's. The animals are the evidence, standing in for a deed of ownership.

31So he called that place Beersheba, because the two of them swore an oath there.

31Wherefore he called that place Beersheba; because there they sware both of them.

NoteBeersheba can be heard as "well of the oath" or "well of seven," and the story leans on both senses at once: seven lambs handed over, and an oath sworn.

32That is how they made a covenant at Beersheba. Then Abimelech and Phichol, the commander of his army, got up and went back to the land of the Philistines.

32Thus they made a covenant at Beersheba: then Abimelech rose up, and Phichol the chief captain of his host, and they returned into the land of the Philistines.

NoteThe Philistines were a people of the coastal plain southwest of Canaan. Later books show them established there as a military power; Genesis applies the name to the people around Gerar in Abraham's much earlier time.

33Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there he called on the name of the LORD, the everlasting God.

33And Abraham planted a grove in Beersheba, and called there on the name of the LORD, the everlasting God.

NoteA tamarisk is a long-lived, deep-rooted tree that survives in dry ground; planting one is what a man does when he means to stay and is staking a claim to the place. "Called on the name of the LORD" covers both praying to God by name and proclaiming that name publicly. "The everlasting God" renders the Hebrew title El Olam, one of several such compound names for God in Genesis, each attached to a particular place.

34And Abraham lived as a foreigner in the land of the Philistines for a long time.

34And Abraham sojourned in the Philistines’ land many days.