A Baby for Sarah

21 The Lord cared for Sarah as he had said. He did for her what he had promised. ² Sarah became pregnant. And she gave birth to a son for Abraham in his old age. Everything happened at the time God had said it would. ³ Abraham named his son Isaac. Sarah gave birth to this son of Abraham. ⁴ Abraham circumcised Isaac when he was eight days old as God had commanded.

⁵ Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born. ⁶ And Sarah said, “God has made me laugh.^[a] Everyone who hears about this will laugh with me. ⁷ No one thought that I would be able to have Abraham’s child. But I have given Abraham a son while he is old.”

Hagar and Ishmael

⁸ Isaac grew and became old enough to eat food. At that time Abraham gave a great feast. ⁹ But Sarah saw Ishmael making fun of Isaac. (Ishmael was the son of Abraham by Hagar, Sarah’s Egyptian slave.) ¹⁰ So Sarah said to Abraham, “Throw out this slave woman and her son. When we die, our son Isaac will inherit everything we have. I don’t want her son to inherit any of our things.”

¹¹ This troubled Abraham very much because Ishmael was also his son. ¹² But God said to Abraham, “Don’t be troubled about the boy and the slave woman. Do whatever Sarah tells you. The descendants I promised you will be from Isaac. ¹³ I will also make the descendants of Ishmael into a great nation. I will do this because he is your son, too.”

¹⁴ Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a leather bag full of water. He gave them to Hagar and sent her away. Hagar carried these things and her son. She went and wandered in the desert of Beersheba.

¹⁵ Later, all the water was gone from the bag. So Hagar put her son under a bush. ¹⁶ Then she went away a short distance and sat down. Hagar thought, “My son will die. I cannot watch this happen.” She sat there and began to cry.

¹⁷ God heard the boy crying. And God’s angel called to Hagar from heaven. He said, “What is wrong, Hagar? Don’t be afraid! God has heard the boy crying there. ¹⁸ Help the boy up. Take him by the hand. I will make his descendants into a great nation.”

¹⁹ Then God showed Hagar a well of water. So she went to the well and filled her bag with water. Then she gave the boy a drink.

²⁰ God was with the boy as he grew up. Ishmael lived in the desert. He learned to shoot with a bow very well. ²¹ He lived in the Desert of Paran. His mother found a wife for him in Egypt.

Abraham’s Bargain with Abimelech

²² Then Abimelech came with Phicol, the commander of Abimelech’s army. They said to Abraham, “God is with you in everything you do. ²³ So make a promise to me here before God. Promise that you will be fair with me and my children and my descendants. Be kind to me and to this land where you have lived as a stranger. Be as kind to me as I have been to you.”

²⁴ And Abraham said, “I promise.” ²⁵ Then Abraham complained to Abimelech about Abimelech’s servants. They had captured a well of water.

²⁶ But Abimelech said, “I don’t know who did this. You never told me about this before today.”

²⁷ Then Abraham gave Abimelech some sheep and cattle. And they made an agreement. ²⁸ Abraham also put seven female lambs in front of Abimelech.

²⁹ Abimelech asked Abraham, “Why did you put these seven female lambs by themselves?”

³⁰ Abraham answered, “Accept these lambs from me. That will prove that you believe I dug this well.”

³¹ So that place was called Beersheba^[b] because they made a promise to each other there.

³² So Abraham and Abimelech made an agreement at Beersheba. Then Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, went back to the land of the Philistines.

³³ Abraham planted a tamarisk tree at Beersheba. There Abraham prayed to the Lord, the God who lives forever. ³⁴ And Abraham lived as a stranger in the land of the Philistines for a long time.

God Tests Abraham

22 After these things God tested Abraham’s faith. God said to him, “Abraham!”

And he answered, “Here I am.”

² Then God said, “Take your only son, Isaac, the son you love. Go to the land of Moriah. There kill him and offer him as a whole burnt offering. Do this on one of the mountains there. I will tell you which one.”

³ Early in the morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took Isaac and two servants with him. He cut the wood for the sacrifice. Then they went to the place God had told them to go. ⁴ On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. ⁵ He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey. My son and I will go over there and worship. Then we will come back to you.”

⁶ Abraham took the wood for the sacrifice and gave it to his son to carry. Abraham took the knife and the fire. So Abraham and his son went on together.

⁷ Isaac said to his father Abraham, “Father!”

Abraham answered, “Yes, my son.”

Isaac said, “We have the fire and the wood. But where is the lamb we will burn as a sacrifice?”

⁸ Abraham answered, “God will give us the lamb for the sacrifice, my son.”

So Abraham and his son went on together. ⁹ They came to the place God had told him about. There, Abraham built an altar. He laid the wood on it. Then he tied up his son Isaac. And he laid Isaac on the wood on the altar. ¹⁰ Then Abraham took his knife and was about to kill his son.

¹¹ But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven. The angel said, “Abraham! Abraham!”

Abraham answered, “Yes.”

¹² The angel said, “Don’t kill your son or hurt him in any way. Now I can see that you respect God. I see that you have not kept your son, your only son, from me.”

¹³ Then Abraham looked up and saw a male sheep. Its horns were caught in a bush. So Abraham went and took the sheep and killed it. He offered it as a whole burnt offering to God. Abraham’s son was saved. ¹⁴ So Abraham named that place The Lord Gives. Even today people say, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be given.”

¹⁵ The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time. ¹⁶ The angel said, “The Lord says, ‘You did not keep back your son, your only son, from me. Because you did this, I make you this promise by my own name: ¹⁷ I will surely bless you and give you many descendants. They will be as many as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. And they will capture the cities of their enemies. ¹⁸ Through your descendants all the nations on the earth will be blessed. This is because you obeyed me.’”

¹⁹ Then Abraham returned to his servants. They all traveled back to Beersheba, and Abraham stayed there.

²⁰ After these things happened, someone told Abraham: “Your brother Nahor and his wife Milcah have children now. ²¹ The first son is Uz. The second son is Buz. The third son is Kemuel (the father of Aram). ²² Then there are Kesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph and Bethuel.” ²³ Bethuel became the father of Rebekah. Milcah was the mother of these eight sons, and Nahor was the father. Nahor was Abraham’s brother. ²⁴ Also Nahor had four other sons by his slave woman Reumah. Their names were Tebah, Gaham, Tahash and Maacah.