1 Now the LORD was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what he had promised. |
2 Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. |
3 Abraham gave the name Isaac1 21:3 Isaac means he laughs . to the son Sarah bore him. |
4 When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him. |
5 Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. |
6 Sarah said, "God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me." |
7 And she added, "Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age." |
8 The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast. |
9 But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking, |
10 and she said to Abraham, "Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac." |
11 The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son. |
12 But God said to him, "Do not be so distressed about the boy and your maidservant. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring2 21:12 Or seed will be reckoned. |
13 I will make the son of the maidservant into a nation also, because he is your offspring." |
14 Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the desert of Beersheba. |
15 When the water in the skin was gone, she put the boy under one of the bushes. |
16 Then she went off and sat down nearby, about a bowshot away, for she thought, "I cannot watch the boy die." And as she sat there nearby, she3 21:16 Hebrew; Septuagint the child began to sob. |
17 God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, "What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. |
18 Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation." |
19 Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. |
20 God was with the boy as he grew up. He lived in the desert and became an archer. |
21 While he was living in the Desert of Paran, his mother got a wife for him from Egypt. |
22 At that time Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his forces said to Abraham, "God is with you in everything you do. |
23 Now swear to me here before God that you will not deal falsely with me or my children or my descendants. Show to me and the country where you are living as an alien the same kindness I have shown to you." |
24 Abraham said, "I swear it." |
25 Then Abraham complained to Abimelech about a well of water that Abimelech's servants had seized. |
26 But Abimelech said, "I don't know who has done this. You did not tell me, and I heard about it only today." |
27 So Abraham brought sheep and cattle and gave them to Abimelech, and the two men made a treaty. |
28 Abraham set apart seven ewe lambs from the flock, |
29 and Abimelech asked Abraham, "What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs you have set apart by themselves?" |
30 He replied, "Accept these seven lambs from my hand as a witness that I dug this well." |
31 So that place was called Beersheba,4 21:31 Beersheba can mean well of seven or well of the oath . because the two men swore an oath there. |
32 After the treaty had been made at Beersheba, Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his forces returned to the land of the Philistines. |
33 Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there he called upon the name of the LORD , the Eternal God. |
34 And Abraham stayed in the land of the Philistines for a long time. |
21 In this chapter we have,
21:2 Sarah conceived - Sarah by faith, received strength to conceive, Heb 11:11. God therefore, by promise, gave that strength.Abraham was old, and Sarah old, and both as good as dead, and then the word of God took place.
21:4 He circumcised his son - The covenant being established with him, the seal of the covenant was administered to him.
21:6 And Sarah said, God has made me to laugh - He hath given me both cause to rejoice, and a heart to rejoice. And it adds to the comfort of any mercy to have our friends rejoice with us in it, See Luk 1:58.They that hear will laugh with me - Others will rejoice in this instance of God's power and goodness, and be encouraged to trust in him.
21:9 Sarah saw the son of the Egyptian mocking - Mocking Isaac no doubt, for it is sad, with reference to this, Gal 4:29, that he that was born after the flesh, persecuted him that was born after the spirit. Ishmael is here called the son of the Egyptian, because (as some think) the four hundred years affliction of the seed of Abrahamby the Egyptians began now, and was to be dated from hence.
21:10 Cast out the bond - woman - This was a type of the rejection of the unbelieving Jews, who, though they were the seed of Abraham, yet, because they submitted not to the gospel - covenant, were unchurched and disfranchised. And that, which above any thing provoked God to cast them off, was, their mocking and persecuting the gospel - church, God's Isaac, in his infancy.
21:11 The thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight - it grieved him that Ishmael had given such provocation. And still more that Sarah insisted upon such a punishment.
21:13 The casting out of Ishmael was not his ruin. He shall be a nation because he is thy seed - We are not sure that it was his eternal ruin. It is presumption to say, that all these who are left out of the external dispensation of God's covenant are excluded from all his mercies.Those may be saved who are not thus honoured.
21:14 And Abraham rose up early in the morning - We may suppose immediately after he had in the night - visions received orders to do this.
21:17 God heard the voice of the lad - We read not of a word be said; but his sighs and groans, cried loud in the ears of the God of mercy. An angel was sent to comfort Hagar, who assures her, God has heard the voice of the lad where he is - Though he be in the wilderness; for wherever we are, there is a way open heavenwards; therefore lift up the lad, and hold him in thy hand - God's readiness to help us when we are in trouble must not slacken, but quicken our endeavours to help ourselves. He repeats the promise concerning her son, that he should be a great nation, as a reason why she should bestir herself to help him.
21:31 Beer - sheba - That is, the well of the oath, in remembrance of the covenant that they sware to, that they might be ever mindful of it.
21:33 And Abraham planted a grove - For a shade to his tent, or perhaps an orchard of fruit trees; and there, though we cannot say he settled, for God would have him while he lived to be a stranger and a pilgrim, yet he sojourned many days. And called there on the name of the Lord - Probably in the grove he planted, which was his oratory, or house ofprayer: he kept up publick worship, to which probably his neighbours resorted, and joined with him. Men should not only retain their goodness wherever they go, but do all they can to propagate it, and make others good.The everlasting God - Though God had made himself known to Abraham as his God in particular; yet he forgets not to give glory to him as the Lord of all, the everlasting God, who was before all worlds, and will be when time and days shall be no more.