1 And the Lord came to Sarah as he had said and did to her as he had undertaken. 2 And Sarah became with child, and gave Abraham a son when he was old, at the time named by God. 3 And Abraham gave to his son, to whom Sarah had given birth, the name Isaac. 4 And when his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham made him undergo circumcision, as God had said to him. 5 Now Abraham was a hundred years old when the birth of Isaac took place. 6 And Sarah said, God has given me cause for laughing, and everyone who has news of it will be laughing with me. 7 And she said, Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would have a child at her breast? for see, I have given him a son now when he is old. 8 And when the child was old enough to be taken from the breast, Abraham made a great feast. 9 And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian playing with Isaac. 10 So she said to Abraham, Send away that woman and her son: for the son of that woman is not to have a part in the heritage with my son Isaac. 11 And this was a great grief to Abraham because of his son. 12 But God said, Let it not be a grief to you because of the boy and Hagar his mother; give ear to whatever Sarah says to you, because it is from Isaac that your seed will take its name. 13 And I will make a nation of the son of your servant-woman, because he is your seed. 14 And early in the morning Abraham got up, and gave Hagar some bread and a water-skin, and put the boy on her back, and sent her away: and she went, wandering in the waste land of Beer-sheba. 15 And when all the water in the skin was used up, she put the child down under a tree. 16 And she went some distance away, about an arrow flight, and seating herself on the earth, she gave way to bitter weeping, saying, Let me not see the death of my child. 17 And the boy's cry came to the ears of God; and the angel of God said to Hagar from heaven, Hagar, why are you weeping? have no fear, for the child's cry has come to the ears of God. 18 Come, take your child in your arms, for I will make of him a great nation. 19 Then God made her eyes open, and she saw a water-spring, and she got water in the skin and gave the boy a drink. 20 And God was with the boy, and he became tall and strong, and he became a bowman, living in the waste land. 21 And while he was in the waste land of Paran, his mother got him a wife from the land of Egypt. 22 Now at that time, Abimelech and Phicol, the captain of his army, said to Abraham, I see that God is with you in all you do. 23 Now, then, give me your oath, in the name of God, that you will not be false to me or to my sons after me, but that as I have been good to you, so you will be to me and to this land where you have been living. 24 And Abraham said, I will give you my oath. 25 But Abraham made a protest to Abimelech because of a water-hole which Abimelech's servants had taken by force. 26 But Abimelech said, I have no idea who has done this thing; you never gave me word of it, and I had no knowledge of it till this day. 27 And Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two of them made an agreement together. 28 And Abraham put seven young lambs of the flock on one side by themselves. 29 Then Abimelech said, What are these seven lambs which you have put on one side? 30 And he said, Take these seven lambs from me as a witness that I have made this water-hole. 31 So he gave that place the name Beer-sheba, because there the two of them had given their oaths. 32 So they made an agreement at Beer-sheba, and Abimelech and Phicol, the captain of his army, went back to the land of the Philistines. 33 And Abraham, after planting a holy tree in Beer-sheba, gave worship to the name of the Lord, the Eternal God. 34 And Abraham went on living in the land of the Philistines as in a strange country.
Genesis · Bible in Basic English
Genesis 21 Bible in Basic English
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
People & places in this chapter
From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.
People
Abimelech
King of Gerar who took Sarah, was warned by God in a dream and returned her to Abraham, and made a covenant with Abraham at Beersheba; an Abimelech king of the Philistines at…
Cited in the guide: Genesis 20:2–3; Genesis 21:22–27; Genesis 26:1
Abraham
Called by God, he left home in faith to become the father of a chosen people.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 12–25
Hagar
Sarah's Egyptian servant who bore Ishmael and met God in the wilderness.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 16, 21
Isaac
The long-promised son, nearly offered on Moriah, through whom the covenant continued.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 21–27
Phicol
Commander of Abimelech's army, who stood with him in the covenant at Beersheba with Abraham and again in the covenant with Isaac.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 21:22; Genesis 21:32; Genesis 26:26
Sarah
Wife of Abraham who bore Isaac in her old age, long after hope seemed gone.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 17-21
Cross references (33)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Psalm 12:6; Genesis 18:10; Genesis 18:14; Genesis 17:19; Galatians 4:23
- 2 Galatians 4:22; Hebrews 11:11; Luke 1:24–25; Genesis 17:19; Luke 1:36
- 3 Genesis 17:19; Romans 9:7; Genesis 21:6; Matthew 1:2; Joshua 24:3
- 4 Acts 7:8; Genesis 17:10–12; Leviticus 12:3; John 7:22–23; Exodus 12:48
- 5 Genesis 17:17; Romans 4:19; Genesis 17:1
- 6 Psalm 126:2; Isaiah 54:1; Genesis 17:17; Luke 1:58; Galatians 4:27–28
- 7 Genesis 18:11–12; Isaiah 66:8; 2 Thessalonians 1:10; Deuteronomy 4:32–34; Numbers 23:23
- 8 1 Samuel 1:22; Hosea 1:8; Genesis 40:20; Genesis 29:22; Psalm 131:2
- 9 Galatians 4:29; Genesis 16:15; Galatians 4:22; Genesis 16:1; Psalm 44:13–14
- 10 John 8:35; Galatians 4:22–31; 1 John 2:19; 1 Peter 1:4; Genesis 36:6–7
- 11 Hebrews 12:11; Genesis 17:18; Matthew 10:37; Genesis 22:1–2; 2 Samuel 18:33
- 12 Hebrews 11:18; Romans 9:7–8; Genesis 17:19; 1 Samuel 8:9; 1 Samuel 8:7
- 13 Genesis 16:10; Genesis 17:20; Genesis 21:18; Genesis 25:12–18
- 14 Psalm 119:60; Genesis 21:31; Proverbs 27:14; 1 Kings 19:3; Genesis 25:6
- 15 Jeremiah 14:3; 2 Kings 3:9; Psalm 63:1; Exodus 15:22–25; Exodus 17:1–3
- 16 Isaiah 49:15; Ruth 1:9; 1 Kings 3:26; Judges 2:4; 1 Samuel 30:4
- 17 Genesis 16:11; Psalm 50:15; Psalm 91:15; Exodus 3:7; Genesis 16:9
- 18 Genesis 21:13; Genesis 16:10; 1 Chronicles 1:29–31; Genesis 17:20; Genesis 25:12–18
- 19 Numbers 22:31; 2 Kings 6:17–20; Isaiah 35:5–6; Luke 24:16–31
- 20 Genesis 28:15; Genesis 39:21; Genesis 16:12; Genesis 39:2–3; Luke 1:80
- 21 Genesis 24:3–4; Genesis 26:34–35; Genesis 27:46–28:2; Numbers 12:16; 1 Samuel 25:1
- 22 Joshua 3:7; Genesis 26:28; Genesis 26:26; Genesis 20:2; Romans 8:31
- 23 Joshua 2:12; Genesis 20:14; Genesis 14:22–23; Genesis 26:28; Genesis 31:44
- 24 Hebrews 6:16; Romans 12:18; Genesis 14:13
- 25 Genesis 26:15–22; Proverbs 27:5; Matthew 18:15; Judges 1:15; Genesis 29:8
- 26 2 Kings 5:20–24; Genesis 13:7
- 27 Genesis 26:28–31; Isaiah 32:8; Proverbs 18:16; Proverbs 18:24; Ezekiel 17:13
- 29 Genesis 33:8; Exodus 12:26; 1 Samuel 15:14
- 30 Genesis 31:52; Joshua 24:27; Joshua 22:27–28; Genesis 31:44–48
- 31 Genesis 26:33; Genesis 21:14; 1 Kings 4:25; Genesis 26:23; 2 Samuel 17:11
- 32 Genesis 21:27; 1 Samuel 18:3; Genesis 10:14; Genesis 26:8; Exodus 13:17
- 33 1 Timothy 1:17; Isaiah 40:28; Psalm 90:2; Romans 16:26; Jeremiah 10:10
- 34 Psalm 39:12; Hebrews 11:13; Genesis 20:1; 1 Peter 2:11; Hebrews 11:9
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
For when Isaac was born and called by that name, Sarah showed that her laughter was not that of scornful reproach, but that of joyful praise; for she said, "God hath made me to laugh, so that every one who hears will laugh with me." Then in a little while the bond maid was cast out of the house with …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)
And when, after he had gained his son, he was commanded to offer him up, although he had heard the word, In Isaac shall thy seed be called, he proceeded to offer up his son, his only son, to God, believing that God is able to raise up even from the dead.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)
… by casting out the bond maid and her son, "In Isaac shall thy seed be called." No doubt He then goes on to say, "And as for the son of this bond woman, I will make him a great nation, because he is thy seed." How then is it said "In Isaac shall thy seed be called," when God calls …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)
For when it is said, "In Isaac shall thy seed be called," by this seed is meant solely the city of God; so that from it is separated Abraham's other seed, which was in the son of the bond woman, and which was to be in the sons of Keturah.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)