A Son Promised to Abraham and Sarah

18 The Lord appeared to Abraham^[a] by the oaks^[b] of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day.^{(A) 2} He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them and bowed down to the ground.^{(B) 3} He said, “My lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant. ⁴ Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree.^{(C) 5} Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.”^{(D) 6} And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah and said, “Make ready quickly three measures^[c] of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes.” ⁷ Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. ⁸ Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared and set it before them, and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.^(E)

⁹ They said to him, “Where is your wife Sarah?” And he said, “There, in the tent.” ¹⁰ Then one said, “I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent entrance behind him.^{(F) 11} Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women.^{(G) 12} So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I be fruitful?”^{(H) 13} The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ ¹⁴ Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son.”^{(I) 15} But Sarah denied, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid. He said, “Yes, you did laugh.”

The Birth of Isaac

21 The Lord dealt with Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had promised.^{(A) 2} Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the time of which God had spoken to him.^{(B) 3} Abraham gave the name Isaac to his son whom Sarah bore him.^{(C) 4} And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him.^{(D) 5} Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.^{(E) 6} Now Sarah said, “God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me.”^{(F) 7} And she said, “Who would ever have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”

Hagar and Ishmael Sent Away

⁸ The child grew and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. ⁹ But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, playing with her son Isaac.^{[a](G) 10} So she said to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit along with my son Isaac.”^{(H) 11} The matter was very distressing to Abraham on account of his son.^{(I) 12} But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed because of the boy and because of your slave woman; whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for it is through Isaac that offspring shall be named for you.^{(J) 13} As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a nation of him also, because he is your offspring.”^{(K) 14} So Abraham rose 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 about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.

¹⁵ When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes. ¹⁶ Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot, for she said, “Do not let me look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. ¹⁷ And God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is.^(L)