Genesis 20:1 – 21:21

Abraham and Abimelek

Genesis 20

¹ Abraham traveled from there toward the Negev, and he lived between Kadesh and Shur. He lived as a resident alien in Gerar. ² About his wife Sarah Abraham said, “She is my sister.” Abimelek king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. ³ But God came to Abimelek in a dream during the night and said to him, “Listen to me! You are a dead man because of the woman you have taken, because she has a husband.”

⁴ Now Abimelek had not come near her. He said, “Lord, will you kill even a righteous nation? ⁵ Didn’t he tell me, ‘She is my sister’? Even she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ I have done this with a sincere heart and innocent hands.”

⁶ God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you have done this with a sincere heart, so I also prevented you from sinning against me. That is why I did not allow you to touch her. ⁷ Now therefore, return the man’s wife. He is a prophet, and he will pray for you, and you will live. If you do not return her, know for sure that you will die, you along with all who are yours.”

⁸ Abimelek rose early in the morning, called all his servants, and told them all these things. The men were terrified. ⁹ Then Abimelek summoned Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? How have I sinned against you, that you have brought this great sin on me and on my kingdom? You have done things to me that should not be done!” ¹⁰ Abimelek said to Abraham, “What did you see in us that made you do this?”

¹¹ Abraham said, “I did it because I said to myself, ‘Surely they do not fear God in this place. They will kill me to get my wife.’ ¹² Besides, she really is my sister, the daughter of my father but not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife. ¹³ When God had me migrate from my father’s house, I said to her, ‘This is the kindness that you shall show to me: Everywhere that we go, say about me, “He is my brother.”’”

¹⁴ Abimelek took sheep and cattle, male servants and female servants, and he gave them to Abraham. He also returned Sarah, his wife, to him. ¹⁵ Abimelek said, “Look, my land is in front of you. Dwell wherever it pleases you.” ¹⁶ To Sarah he said, “Look, I have given your brother a thousand pieces ^[1] of silver. You see, it covers any offense in the eyes of everyone who is with you. In front of all of them you are vindicated.”

¹⁷ Abraham prayed to God. God healed Abimelek and his wife and his female servants, so that they were able to bear children. ¹⁸ For the Lord had closed up tight all the wombs of the household of Abimelek over the matter of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

The Birth of Isaac

Genesis 21

¹ The Lord visited ^[2] Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had promised. ² Sarah conceived and gave birth to a son for Abraham in his old age, at the set time which God had announced to him. ³ Abraham named the son who was born to him—the son whom Sarah had borne to him— ^[3] Isaac. ^{[4] 4} Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. ⁵ Abraham was one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.

⁶ Sarah said, “God has made me laugh. Everyone who hears will laugh with me.” ⁷ She said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne a son for him in his old age.”

⁸ The child grew and was weaned. Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. ⁹ Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, the son whom Hagar had borne to Abraham, laughing at Isaac. ¹⁰ Therefore, she said to Abraham, “Throw out this slave girl ^[5] and her son! For the son of this slave will not be heir with my son Isaac.”

¹¹ Abraham was very distressed because of his son. ¹² God said to Abraham, “Do not be so distressed because of the boy and because of your maid. ^[6] Listen to everything that Sarah says to you, because the family line of your descendants ^[7] will be traced through Isaac. ¹³ I will also make the son of the maid into a nation because he too is your offspring.”

¹⁴ Abraham got up early in the morning. He took bread and a waterskin, which he gave to Hagar, putting it over her shoulder. He sent her away with her child. She set out and wandered in the wilderness near Beersheba. ¹⁵ The water in the skin was used up, and she dragged the child under one of the bushes. ¹⁶ She went and sat down by herself, across from him, at a distance, about a bow shot away, because she said, “Do not let me see the death of the child.” She sat across from him and wept loudly.

¹⁷ God heard the boy’s voice, and the Angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven and said to her, “What is wrong, Hagar? Do not be afraid, for God has heard the boy’s voice right where he is. ¹⁸ Get up. Help the boy up, and take him by the hand, because I will make him into a great nation.”

¹⁹ God opened her eyes, and she saw a well with water in it. She went, filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink. ²⁰ God was with the boy, and as he grew up, he lived in the wilderness and became an archer. ²¹ He lived in the wilderness of Paran. His mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.