¹The Lord visited Sarah just as he had said he would and did for Sarah what he had promised. ²So Sarah became pregnant and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the appointed time that God had told him. ³Abraham named his son—whom Sarah bore to him—Isaac. ⁴When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him just as God had commanded him to do.⁵(Now Abraham was one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.)⁶Sarah said, “God has made me laugh. Everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.”⁷She went on to say, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have given birth to a son for him in his old age!” ⁸The child grew and was weaned. Abraham prepared a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. ⁹But Sarah noticed the son of Hagar the Egyptian—the son whom Hagar had borne to Abraham—mocking. ¹⁰So she said to Abraham, “Banish that slave woman and her son, for the son of that slave woman will not be an heir along with my son Isaac!” ¹¹Sarah’s demand displeased Abraham greatly because Ishmael was his son. ¹²But God said to Abraham, “Do not be upset about the boy or your slave wife. Do all that Sarah is telling you because through Isaac your descendants will be counted. ¹³But I will also make the son of the slave wife into a great nation, for he is your descendant too.”¹⁴Early in the morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He put them on her shoulders, gave her the child, and sent her away. So she went wandering aimlessly through the wilderness of Beer Sheba. ¹⁵When the water in the skin was gone, she shoved the child under one of the shrubs. ¹⁶Then she went and sat down by herself across from him at quite a distance, about a bowshot, away; for she thought, “I refuse to watch the child die.” So she sat across from him and wept uncontrollably.¹⁷But God heard the boy’s voice. The angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and asked her, “What is the matter, Hagar? Don’t be afraid, for God has heard the boy’s voice right where he is crying.¹⁸Get up! Help the boy up and hold him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.” ¹⁹Then God enabled Hagar to see a well of water. She went over and filled the skin with water, and then gave the boy a drink. ²⁰God was with the boy as he grew. He lived in the wilderness and became an archer. ²¹He lived in the wilderness of Paran. His mother found a wife for him from the land of Egypt. ²²At that time Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, said to Abraham, “God is with you in all that you do. ²³Now swear to me right here in God’s name that you will not deceive me, my children, or my descendants. Show me, and the land where you are staying, the same loyalty that I have shown you.” ²⁴Abraham said, “I swear to do this.”²⁵But Abraham lodged a complaint against Abimelech concerning a well that Abimelech’s servants had seized. ²⁶“I do not know who has done this thing,” Abimelech replied. “Moreover, you did not tell me. I did not hear about it until today.” ²⁷Abraham took some sheep and cattle and gave them to Abimelech. The two of them made a treaty. ²⁸Then Abraham set seven ewe lambs apart from the flock by themselves. ²⁹Abimelech asked Abraham, “What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs that you have set apart?” ³⁰He replied, “You must take these seven ewe lambs from my hand as legal proof that I dug this well.” ³¹That is why he named that place Beer Sheba, because the two of them swore an oath there. ³²So they made a treaty at Beer Sheba; then Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, returned to the land of the Philistines. ³³Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beer Sheba. There he worshiped the Lord, the eternal God. ³⁴So Abraham stayed in the land of the Philistines for quite some time.