^18 (A)For the Lord had completely closed all the wombs of the household of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

Isaac Is Born

21 ^(B)Then the Lord took note of Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as He had ^[a]promised. ^2 (C)So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at ^(D)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, ^(E)Isaac. ⁴ Then Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was ^(F)eight days old, as God had commanded him. ⁵ Now Abraham was ^(G)a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. ⁶ Sarah said, “God has made ^(H)laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh ^[b]with me.” ⁷ And she said, “^(I)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 ^(J)the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, ^(K)mocking Isaac. ¹⁰ Therefore she said to Abraham, “^(L)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 (M)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 ^(N)through Isaac ^[f]your descendants shall be named. ¹³ And of ^(O)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 ^(P)raised her voice and wept. ¹⁷ God ^(Q)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? ^(R)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, ^(S)for I will make a great nation of him.” ¹⁹ Then God ^(T)opened her eyes, and she saw ^(U)a well of water; and she went and filled the ^[m]skin with water and gave the boy a drink.

²⁰ And ^(V)God was with the boy, and he grew; and he lived in the wilderness and became an archer. ^21 (W)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 ^(X)Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, spoke to Abraham, saying, “^(Y)God is with you in all that you do; ²³ so now, ^(Z)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 ^(AA)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 ^(AB)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 ^(AC)witness for me, that I dug this well.” ³¹ Therefore he called that place ^[p](AD)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 ^(AE)he called on the name of the Lord, the ^(AF)Everlasting God. ³⁴ And Abraham resided ^(AG)in the land of the Philistines for many days.

⁵⁸ And He did not do many ^[a]miracles there because of their unbelief.

John the Baptist Beheaded

14 ^[b](A)At that time ^[c](B)Herod ^[d]the tetrarch heard the news about Jesus, ² and said to his servants, “^(C)This is John the Baptist; he himself has been raised from the dead, and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him.”

³ For when ^(D)Herod had John arrested, he bound him and put him ^(E)in prison because of ^(F)Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip. ⁴ For John had been saying to him, “^(G)It is not lawful for you to have her.” ⁵ Although Herod wanted to put him to death, he feared the crowd, because they regarded ^[e]John as ^(H)a prophet.

⁶ But when Herod’s birthday came, the daughter of ^(I)Herodias danced ^[f]before them and pleased ^(J)Herod, ⁷ so much that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked. ⁸ And after being prompted by her mother, she *said, “Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter.” ⁹ And although he was grieved, the king commanded it to be given because of his oaths and ^[g]his dinner guests. ¹⁰ He sent word and had John beheaded in the prison. ¹¹ And his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother. ^12 [h]John’s disciples came and took away the body and buried ^[i]it; and they went and reported to Jesus.

Five Thousand Men Fed

^13 (K)Now when Jesus heard about John, He withdrew from there in a boat to a secluded place by Himself; and when the ^[j]people heard about this, they followed Him on foot from the cities. ¹⁴ When He came ^[k]ashore, He ^(L)saw a large crowd, and felt compassion for them and ^(M)healed their sick.

¹⁵ Now when it was evening, the disciples came to Him and said, “This place is secluded and the hour is already past to eat; send the crowds away, so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” ¹⁶ But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go; you give them something to eat!” ¹⁷ They *said to Him, “We have nothing here except ^(N)five loaves and two fish.” ¹⁸ And He said, “Bring them here to Me.” ¹⁹ And ordering the crowds to ^[l]sit down on the grass, He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looked up toward heaven. He ^(O)blessed the food and breaking the loaves, He gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. ²⁰ And they all ate and were satisfied, and they picked up what was left over of the broken pieces: twelve full ^(P)baskets. ²¹ There were about five thousand men who ate, besides women and children.

Jesus Walks on the Water

^22 (Q)Immediately afterward He compelled the disciples to get into the boat and to go ahead of Him to the other side, while He sent the crowds away. ²³ After He had sent the crowds away, ^(R)He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray; and when it was evening, He was there alone. ²⁴ But the boat was already ^[m]a long distance from the land, ^[n]battered by the waves; for the wind was ^[o](S)contrary. ²⁵ And in ^(T)the ^[p]fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on the sea. ²⁶ When the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is ^(U)a ghost!” And they cried out ^[q]in fear. ²⁷ But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “^(V)Take courage, ^[r]it is I; ^(W)do not be afraid.”

²⁸ Peter responded and said to Him, “Lord, if ^[s]it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” ²⁹ And He said, “Come!” And Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water, and came toward Jesus. ³⁰ But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and when he began to sink, he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!” ³¹ Immediately Jesus reached out with His hand and took hold of him, and *said to him, “^(X)You of little faith, why did you doubt?” ³² When they got into the boat, the wind stopped. ³³ And those who were in the boat worshiped Him, saying, “You are truly ^(Y)God’s Son!”

^34 (Z)When they had crossed over, they came to land at ^(AA)Gennesaret. ³⁵ And when the men of that place ^[t]recognized Him, they sent word into all that surrounding region and brought to Him all who were sick; ³⁶ and they pleaded with Him that they might just touch ^(AB)the ^[u]border of His cloak; and all who ^(AC)touched it were cured.

⁶ So the inhabitants of this coastland will say on that day, ‘Behold, such is our hope, where we fled ^(A)for help to be saved from the king of Assyria; and ^(B)how are we ourselves to escape?’”

God Commands That Babylon Be Taken

21 The ^(C)pronouncement concerning the ^[a](D)wilderness of the sea:

⁶ For this is what the Lord says to me:

⁸ Then ^[h]the lookout called,

Pronouncements about Edom and Arabia

¹¹ The pronouncement concerning ^[k](S)Edom:

¹³ The pronouncement about ^(U)Arabia:

¹⁶ For this is what the Lord said to me: “In a ^(Y)year, as ^[p]a hired worker would count it, all the splendor of ^(Z)Kedar will come to an end; ¹⁷ and the ^(AA)remainder of the number of bowmen, the warriors of the sons of Kedar, will be few; for the Lord God of Israel ^(AB)has spoken.”