Genesis 21 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

The Birth of Isaac

(Heb 11:11 )

Gen 21:1

Gen 21:1The LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did to Sarah as he had promised.

Gen 21:2

Gen 21:2And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him.

Gen 21:3

Gen 21:3Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac.[fn]

Gen 21:4

Gen 21:4And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him.

Gen 21:5

Gen 21:5Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.

Gen 21:6

Gen 21:6And Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me.”

Gen 21:7

Gen 21:7And she said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”

God Protects Hagar and Ishmael

(Gal 4:21–30 )

Gen 21:8

Gen 21:8And the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.

Gen 21:9

Gen 21:9But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, laughing.[fn]

Gen 21:10

Gen 21:10So she said to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.”

Gen 21:11

Gen 21:11And the thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son.

Gen 21:12

Gen 21:12But God said to Abraham, “Be not displeased because of the boy and because of your slave woman. Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for through Isaac shall your offspring be named.

Gen 21:13

Gen 21:13And I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring.”

Gen 21:14

Gen 21:14So 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 in the wilderness of Beersheba.

Gen 21:15

Gen 21:15When the water in the skin was gone, she put the child under one of the bushes.

Gen 21:16

Gen 21:16Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot, for she said, “Let me not look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept.

Gen 21:17

Gen 21:17And 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? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is.

Gen 21:18

Gen 21:18Up! Lift up the boy, and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make him into a great nation.”

Gen 21:19

Gen 21:19Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. And she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.

Gen 21:20

Gen 21:20And God was with the boy, and he grew up. He lived in the wilderness and became an expert with the bow.

Gen 21:21

Gen 21:21He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

A Treaty with Abimelech

Gen 21:22

Gen 21:22At that time Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army said to Abraham, “God is with you in all that you do.

Gen 21:23

Gen 21:23Now therefore swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my descendants or with my posterity, but as I have dealt kindly with you, so you will deal with me and with the land where you have sojourned.”

Gen 21:24

Gen 21:24And Abraham said, “I will swear.”

Gen 21:25

Gen 21:25When Abraham reproved Abimelech about a well of water that Abimelech’s servants had seized,

Gen 21:26

Gen 21:26Abimelech said, “I do not know who has done this thing; you did not tell me, and I have not heard of it until today.”

Gen 21:27

Gen 21:27So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two men made a covenant.

Gen 21:28

Gen 21:28Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock apart.

Gen 21:29

Gen 21:29And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs that you have set apart?”

Gen 21:30

Gen 21:30He said, “These seven ewe lambs you will take from my hand, that this[fn] may be a witness for me that I dug this well.”

Gen 21:31

Gen 21:31Therefore that place was called Beersheba,[fn] because there both of them swore an oath.

Gen 21:32

Gen 21:32So they made a covenant at Beersheba. Then Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army rose up and returned to the land of the Philistines.

Gen 21:33

Gen 21:33Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and called there on the name of the LORD, the Everlasting God.

Gen 21:34

Gen 21:34And Abraham sojourned many days in the land of the Philistines.

See the ESV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

ESV Footnotes

(21:3)

Isaac means he laughs

(21:9)

Possibly laughing in mockery

(21:30)

Or you

(21:31)

Beersheba means well of seven or well of the oath

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For more information on this translation, see the ESV Preface.