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19 But God said, “No, but Sarah, your wife, shall bear you a son, and you shall name him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an eternal covenant, that I will be his God and the God of his descendants after him.

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21 But I will establish my covenant with Isaac. Sarah shall give birth to him by this time next year.”

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Abraham named the son whom Sarah bore Isaac. Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him to do. Abraham was one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born.

Sarah said, “God has given me a reason to laugh out loud. All will smile because of me.” She then said, “Who would have ever said to Abraham, ‘Sarah will nurse sons’? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”

Ishmael Is Sent Away.[a] Isaac grew and was weaned. On the day that he was weaned, Abraham threw a great banquet. But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, the one whom she had borne to Abraham, playing with[b] her son Isaac. 10 She said to Abraham, “Send this slave and her son away, for the son of this slave must not be an heir together with my son Isaac.”

11 This greatly distressed Abraham for he was concerned for his son. 12 But God said to Abraham, “Do not let this matter with your son and the slave woman distress you. Listen to what Sarah tells you. Listen to her voice, for it is through Isaac that descendants will bear your name.

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Footnotes

  1. Genesis 21:8 The two stories that follow are from the Elohist tradition. According to a number of critics, the first story is another version of the Yahwist-Priestly story in 16:4-16. It is to be noted, among other things, that Ishmael is here shown as a boy, while at the period here indicated he would have been an adolescent.
    St. Paul uses the incident as an argument that the new Covenant replaces the old (Gal 4:21-31).
  2. Genesis 21:9 Playing with: this can also be translated as mocking. According to the later Jewish tradition, the word here refers to immoral or idolatrous practices on the part of Ishmael (“mocking” in the sense of Gen 39:14, 17); St. Paul, however, interprets it as meaning persecution (Gal 4:29), perhaps resulting from envy.

God said, “Take your son, your only son, the one you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah[a] and offer him as a burnt offering on the mountain that I will show you.”

Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled a donkey, and took two servants and his son Isaac with him. He also took the wood for the burnt offering and set out toward the place about which God had spoken. On the third day, Abraham looked up and saw that place from a distance. Abraham said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey. I and the boy will go over there. We will worship and then we will return to you.” Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and loaded it upon his son Isaac. He himself carried the fire and the knife. They then set out together. Isaac turned to his father Abraham and said, “My father!”

He answered, “Here I am, my son.”

He continued, “Here are the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son!” And the two of them went on together.

They then arrived at the place of which God had spoken. There Abraham built an altar and piled up the wood. He tied up his son Isaac and placed him upon the altar so that he was lying upon the wood.

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Footnotes

  1. Genesis 22:2 Moriah is also the mountain on which the Temple of Jerusalem will be built (2 Chr 3:1).