1   The Lord showed favour to Sarah as he had promised, and made good what he had said about her. 2   She conceived and bore a son to Abraham for his old age, at the time which God had appointed. 3   The son whom Sarah bore to him, Abraham named Isaac. ^note 4   When Isaac was eight days old Abraham circumcised him, as God had commanded. 5   Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born. 6   Sarah said, ‘God has given me good reason to laugh, and everybody who hears will laugh with me.’ 7   She said, ‘Whoever would have told Abraham that Sarah would suckle children? Yet I have borne him a son for his old age.’ 8   The boy grew and was weaned, and on the day of his weaning Abraham gave a feast. 9   Sarah saw the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham laughing at him, 10   and she said to Abraham, ‘Drive out this slave-girl and her son; I will not have this slave-girl's son sharing the inheritance with my son Isaac.’ 11   Abraham was vexed at this on his son Ishmael's account, 12   but God said to him, ‘Do not be vexed on account of the boy and the slave-girl. Do what

Abraham and Isaac Sarah says, because you shall have descendants through Isaac. 13   I will make a great ^note nation of the slave-girl's son too, because he is your own child.’

14   Abraham rose early in the morning, took some food and a waterskin full of water and gave it to Hagar; he set the child on her shoulder and sent her away, and she went and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. 15   When the water in the skin was finished, she thrust the child under a bush, 16   and went and sat down some way off, about two bowshots away, for she said, ‘How can I watch the child die?’ So she sat some way off, weeping bitterly. 17   God heard the child crying, and the ^note angel of God called from heaven to Hagar, ‘What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid: God has heard the child crying where you laid him. 18   Get to your feet, lift the child up and hold him in your arms, because I will make of him a great nation.’ 19   Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well full of water; she went to it, filled her waterskin and gave the child a drink. 20    21   God was with the child, and he grew up and lived in the wilderness of Paran. He became an archer, and his mother found him a wife from Egypt.

22   Now about that time Abimelech, with Phicol the commander of his army, addressed Abraham in these terms: ‘God is with you in all that you do. 23   Now swear an oath to me in the name of God, that you will not break faith with me, my offspring, or my descendants. As I have kept faith with you, so shall you keep faith with me and with the country where you have come to live as an alien.’ 24   Abraham said, ‘I swear.’ 25   It happened that Abraham had a complaint against Abimelech about a well which Abimelech's men had seized. 26   Abimelech said, ‘I do not know who did this. You never told me, and I have heard nothing about it till now.’ 27   So Abraham took sheep and cattle and gave them to Abimelech; and the two of them made a pact. 28   Abraham set seven ewe-lambs apart, 29   and when Abimelech asked him why he had set these lambs apart, 30   he said, ‘Accept these from me in token that I dug this well.’ 31   Therefore that place was called Beersheba, ^note because there the two of them swore an oath. 32   When they had made the pact at Beersheba, Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army returned at once to the country of the Philistines, 33   and Abraham planted a strip of ground ^note at Beersheba. There he invoked the Lord, the everlasting God, by name, 34   and he lived as an alien in the country of the Philistines for many a year.

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