1 And the LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did unto Sarah as he had spoken.
21:1-71 And the LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did unto Sarah as he had spoken.
2 For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.
3 And Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac.
4 And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac being eight days old, as God had commanded him.
5 And Abraham was an hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born unto him.
6 And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me.
7 And she said, Who would have said unto Abraham, that Sarah should have given children suck? for I have born him a son in his old age.
Abraham was 100 years old at the time. [2]
21:8-118 And the child grew, and was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned.
Abraham had a feast to celebrate the day that Isaac was weaned.
9Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking.
10Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac.
11 And the thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight because of his son.
So Sarah said to Abraham,
Cast out this slave woman and her son. [4]
21:12-1312 And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called.
13 And also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed.
God said to Abraham,
Don't worry about Ishmael and Hagar. [5]Do what Sarah said. Your seed will be Isaac's seed.
21:14-2114 And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the child and sent her away: and she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.
Abraham gave Hagar some bread and a bottle of water, and sent her and Ishmael into the wilderness. [6]
15 And the water was spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs.
After the water ran out, Hagar put the little boy under a bush.
16And she went, and sat her down over against him a good way off, as it were a bow shot: for she said, Let me not see the death of the child. And she sat over against him, and lift up her voice, and wept.
Then she went a ways off, and said, "Let me not see his death."
And she sat next to him and wept.
17 And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is.
18 Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand; for I will make him a great nation.
God heard the little boy crying, and an angel called to Hagar from heaven, saying,
What's wrong with you, Hagar?
Don't be afraid. God has heard the voice of your little boy.
Get up and lift him up in your hand. I will make him a great nation.
19And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink.
God opened Hagar's eyes so she could see a well. And she gave Ishmael a drink.
20 And God was with the lad; and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer.
21 And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran: and his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt.
21:22-3422 And it came to pass at that time, that Abimelech and Phichol the chief captain of his host spake unto Abraham, saying, God is with thee in all that thou doest:
King Abimelech and his captain, Phichol, said to Abraham,
God is with you in all that you do.
23 Now therefore swear unto me here by God that thou wilt not deal falsely with me, nor with my son, nor with my son's son: but according to the kindness that I have done unto thee, thou shalt do unto me, and to the land wherein thou hast sojourned.
Therefore, swear to God that you will treat me and my descendants well.
24And Abraham said, I will swear.
25 And Abraham reproved Abimelech because of a well of water, which Abimelech's servants had violently taken away.
26 And Abimelech said, I wot not who hath done this thing; neither didst thou tell me, neither yet heard I of it, but to day.
27 And Abraham took sheep and oxen, and gave them unto Abimelech; and both of them made a covenant.
28 And Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves.
29 And Abimelech said unto Abraham, What mean these seven ewe lambs which thou hast set by themselves?
30 And he said, For these seven ewe lambs shalt thou take of my hand, that they may be a witness unto me, that I have digged this well.
Abraham said,
I will swear. [7]
31Wherefore he called that place Beersheba; because there they sware both of them.
Wherefore he called that place Beersheba. [8]
32 Thus they made a covenant at Beersheba: then Abimelech rose up, and Phichol the chief captain of his host, and they returned into the land of the Philistines.
33 And Abraham planted a grove in Beersheba, and called there on the name of the LORD, the everlasting God.
34 And Abraham sojourned in the Philistines' land many days.
Abraham returned to the land of the Philistines. [9]
God-assisted conceptions never result in daughters.
What did Sarah see that disturbed her so much?
Jonathan Kirsch suggests in The Harlot by the Side of the Road that the "play" between Isaac and Ishmael may have been of a sexual nature, noting that the same word is used to describe the behavior of Ishmael and Isaac as is used in Gen 26:8 to describe Isaac's fondling of Rebekah.
Once again (see Gen 16:5-6), Sarah tells Abraham to abandon his son, Ishmael, and his mother, Hagar.
In these verses (14-18), Hagar "casts the child under one of the shrubs" and later holds him in her hand, implying that Ishmael was an infant when he was abandoned by Abraham.
But the Philistines didn't arrive in the region of Canaan until around 1200 BCE -- 800 years after Abraham's supposed migration from Ur.
Sarah's an awful woman. She uses her infertility to justify having her husband impregnate her handmaid Hagar, gets bothered when the woman is angry that she was taken advantage of, goes along with Abraham's stupid lying to the Pharaoh and Abimelech, gets to be blessed by God with a son of her own (which she didn't earn), then decides to screw Hagar again by sending her and Ishmael (the son Sarah's entire plan was meant to provide her with) out to basically die because now she has Isaac, her very own natural son.
Hagar has still yet to experience anything remotely in recompense for the nonsense Sarah and Abraham put her through. She gets talked down to by God (who should already know everything that's happened to her) who asks her the idiotic question, "What's wrong, Hagar?" (Gee, what do you think?!)
Some bread and water and some senseless patronizing from God aren't payment enough for what she has gone through.