Genesis 21:8-21

Hagar and Ishmael Sent Away

8 The child grew and was weaned, and Abraham held a great feast on the day Isaac was weaned.

9 But Sarah saw the son mocking^[a]-the one Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham.^[b]

10 So she said to Abraham, "Drive out this slave with her son, for the son of this slave will not be a co-heir with my son Isaac!"^[c]

11 Now this was a very difficult thing for^[d] Abraham because of his son.

12 But God said to Abraham, "Do not be concerned^[e] about the boy and your slave. Whatever Sarah says to you, listen to her, because your offspring will be traced through Isaac.^[f]

13 But I will also make a nation of the slave's son because he is your offspring."

14 Early in the morning Abraham got up, took bread and a waterskin, [put them] on Hagar's shoulders, and sent her and the boy away.^[g] She left and wandered in the Wilderness of Beer-sheba.

15 When the water in the skin was gone, she left the boy under one of the bushes.

16 Then she went and sat down nearby, about a bowshot away, for she said, "I can't [bear to] watch the boy die!" So as she sat nearby, she^[h] wept loudly.

17 God heard the voice of the boy, and the^[i] angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, "What's wrong, Hagar? Don't be afraid, for God has heard the voice of the boy from the place where he is.

18 Get up, help the boy up, and sustain him, for I will make him a great nation."

19 Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the waterskin and gave the boy a drink.

20 God was with the boy, and he grew; he settled in the wilderness and became an archer.

21 He settled in the Wilderness of Paran, and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

Genesis 21:8-21 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS 21

This chapter gives an account of the conception, birth, circumcision, and weaning of Isaac, Ge 21:1-8; of the mocking of Ishmael, and of the casting out of him and his mother from Abraham's house, at the request of Sarah, which, though grievous to Abraham, he complied with at the direction of God, Ge 21:9-13; of the provision Abraham made for their departure, and of the supply they met with in the wilderness from God, where Ishmael was brought up, and where he married, Ge 21:14-21; and of a covenant between Abraham and Abimelech, king of Gerar, Ge 21:22-32; and of Abraham's planting a grove, and calling on the name of the Lord, Ge 21:33; and the chapter is closed with this observation, that Abraham sojourned in the land of the Philistines many days, Ge 21:34.

Footnotes

• [a] LXX, Vg add Isaac her son
• [b] Gl 4:29
• [c] Gl 4:30
• [d] Lit was very bad in the eyes of
• [e] Lit Let it not be bad in your eyes
• [f] Rm 9:7
• [g] To "send away" a woman divorce her; Dt 24:1. To "send away" a slave free her; Dt 15:13.
• [h] LXX reads the boy
• [i] Or an