Sarai and Hagar

16 Now ^(A)Sarai, Abram’s wife, had not borne him a child, but she had ^(B)an Egyptian slave woman whose name was Hagar. ² So Sarai said to Abram, “See now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. ^(C)Please have relations with my slave woman; perhaps I will ^[a]obtain children through her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. ³ And so after Abram had lived ^(D)ten years in the land of Canaan, Abram’s wife Sarai took Hagar the Egyptian, her slave woman, and gave her to her husband Abram as his wife. ⁴ Then he had relations with Hagar, and she conceived; and when Hagar became aware that she had conceived, her mistress was insignificant in her sight. ⁵ So Sarai said to Abram, “^(E)May the wrong done to me be upon you! I put my slave woman into your ^[b]arms, but when she saw that she had conceived, I was insignificant in her ^[c]sight. ^(F)May the Lord judge between ^[d]you and me.” ⁶ But Abram said to Sarai, “Look, your slave woman is in your ^[e]power; do to her what is good in your ^[f]sight.” So Sarai treated her harshly, and ^(G)she fled from her presence.

⁷ Now ^(H)the angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to ^(I)Shur. ⁸ He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s slave woman, ^(J)from where have you come, and where are you going?” And she said, “I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.” ⁹ So the angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit ^[g]to her authority.” ¹⁰ The ^(K)angel of the Lord also said to her, “^(L)I will greatly multiply your ^[h]descendants so that ^[i]they will be too many to count.” ¹¹ The angel of the Lord said to her further,

¹³ Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “^[l]You are ^[m]a God who sees me”; for she said, “^(P)Have I even seen Him here and lived after ^[n]He saw me?” ¹⁴ Therefore the well was called ^[o]Beer-lahai-roi; behold, it is between ^(Q)Kadesh and Bered.

¹⁵ So Hagar bore a son to Abram; and Abram named his son, to whom Hagar gave birth, Ishmael. ¹⁶ Abram was ^(R)eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to ^[p]him.

Isaac Is Born

21 ^(A)Then the Lord took note of Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as He had ^[a]promised. ^2 (B)So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at ^(C)the appointed time of which God had spoken to him. ³ Abraham named his son who was born to him, the son whom Sarah bore to him, ^(D)Isaac. ⁴ Then Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was ^(E)eight days old, as God had commanded him. ⁵ Now Abraham was ^(F)a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. ⁶ Sarah said, “God has made ^(G)laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh ^[b]with me.” ⁷ And she said, “^(H)Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have given birth to a son in his old age.”

⁸ And the child grew and was weaned, and Abraham held a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.

Sarah Turns against Hagar

⁹ Now Sarah saw ^(I)the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, ^(J)mocking Isaac. ¹⁰ Therefore she said to Abraham, “^(K)Drive out this slave woman and her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be an heir with my son ^[c]Isaac!” ^11 (L)The matter ^[d]distressed Abraham greatly because of his son Ishmael. ¹² But God said to Abraham, “^[e]Do not be distressed because of the boy and your slave woman; whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her, for ^(M)through Isaac ^[f]your descendants shall be named. ¹³ And of ^(N)the son of the slave woman I will make a nation also, because he is your ^[g]descendant.” ¹⁴ So Abraham got up early in the morning and took bread and a ^[h]skin of water, and gave them to Hagar, putting them on her shoulder, and gave her the boy, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered about in the wilderness of Beersheba.

¹⁵ When the water in the skin was used up, she ^[i]left the boy under one of the bushes. ¹⁶ Then she went and sat down opposite him, about a bowshot away, for she said, “May I not ^[j]see the boy die!” And she sat opposite him, and ^(O)raised her voice and wept. ¹⁷ God ^(P)heard the boy crying; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “^[k]What is the matter with you, Hagar? ^(Q)Do not fear, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. ¹⁸ Get up, lift up the boy, and hold him by ^[l]the hand, ^(R)for I will make a great nation of him.” ¹⁹ Then God ^(S)opened her eyes, and she saw ^(T)a well of water; and she went and filled the ^[m]skin with water and gave the boy a drink.

²⁰ And ^(U)God was with the boy, and he grew; and he lived in the wilderness and became an archer. ^21 (V)He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

Covenant with Abimelech

²² Now it came about at that time that ^(W)Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, spoke to Abraham, saying, “^(X)God is with you in all that you do; ²³ so now, ^(Y)swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my offspring or with my descendants, but according to the kindness that I have shown to you, you shall show to me and to the land in which you have resided.” ²⁴ Abraham said, “I swear it.” ²⁵ But Abraham ^[n]complained to Abimelech because of the well of water which the servants of Abimelech ^(Z)had seized. ²⁶ And Abimelech said, “I do not know who has done this thing; you did not tell me, nor did I hear of it ^[o]until today.”

²⁷ So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and ^(AA)the two of them made a covenant. ²⁸ But Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves. ²⁹ Then Abimelech said to Abraham, “What do these seven ewe lambs mean, which you have set by themselves?” ³⁰ He said, “You shall take these seven ewe lambs from my hand so that it may be a ^(AB)witness for me, that I dug this well.” ³¹ Therefore he called that place ^[p](AC)Beersheba, because there the two of them took an oath. ³² So they made a covenant at Beersheba; and Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, got up and returned to the land of the Philistines. ³³ Abraham planted a tamarisk tree at Beersheba, and there ^(AD)he called on the name of the Lord, the ^(AE)Everlasting God. ³⁴ And Abraham resided ^(AF)in the land of the Philistines for many days.