Allah visited Sarah as he had said, and Allah did to Sarah as he had spoken. 2Sarah conceived, and bore Ibrahim a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. 3Ibrahim called his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bare to him, Ishaq.[1] 4Ibrahim circumcised his son, Ishaq, when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. 5Ibrahim was one hundred years old when his son, Ishaq, was born to him. 6Sarah said, “God has made me laugh. Everyone who hears will laugh with me.“ 7She said, “Who would have said to Ibrahim, that Sarah would nurse children? For I have borne him a son in his old age.“
8The child grew, and was weaned. Ibrahim made a great feast on the day that Ishaq was weaned. 9Sarah saw the son of Hajira the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Ibrahim, mocking. 10Therefore she said to Ibrahim, “Throw out that slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman will not share in the inheritance with my son,[2] even with Ishaq.“
11The thing was very grievous in Ibrahim’s sight on account of his son. 12God said to Ibrahim, “Do not let it be grievous in your sight because of the boy, and because of your maidservant. In all that Sarah says to you, listen to her voice. For in Ishaq will your seed be called.[3] 13Also of the son of the slave woman will I make a nation, because he is your seed.“ 14Ibrahim rose up early in the morning, and took bread and a bottle of water, and gave it to Hajira, putting it on her shoulder, and gave her the child, and sent her away. She departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. 15The water in the bottle was spent, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs. 16She went and sat down opposite him, a good way off, about a bow shot away. For she said, “Do not let me see the death of the child.“ She sat over against him, and lifted up her voice, and wept. 17God heard the voice of the boy.
The angel of God called to Hajira out of the sky, and said to her, “What ails you, Hajira? Do not be afraid. For God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. 18Get up, lift up the boy, and hold him in your hand. For I will make him a great nation.“
19God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. She went, filled the bottle with water, and gave the boy drink. 20God was with the boy, and he grew. He lived in the wilderness, and became, as he grew up, an archer. 21He lived in the wilderness of Paran. His mother took a wife for him out of the land of Egypt.
22It happened at that time, that Abimelech and Phicol the captain of his army spoke to Ibrahim, saying, “God is with you in all that you do. 23Now therefore swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me, nor with my son, nor with my son’s son. But according to the kindness that I have done to you, you shall do to me, and to the land in which you have lived as a foreigner.“
24Ibrahim said, “I will swear.“ 25Ibrahim complained to Abimelech because of a water well, which Abimelech’s servants had violently taken away. 26Abimelech said, “I do not know who has done this thing. Neither did you tell me, neither did I hear of it, until today.“
27Ibrahim took sheep and oxen, and gave them to Abimelech. Those two made a covenant. 28Ibrahim set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves. 29Abimelech said to Ibrahim, “What do these seven ewe lambs which you have set by themselves mean?“
30He said, “You shall take these seven ewe lambs from my hand, that it may be a witness to me, that I have dug this well.“ 31Therefore he called that place Beersheba,[4] because they both swore there. 32So they made a covenant at Beersheba. Abimelech rose up with Phicol, the captain of his army, and they returned into the land of the Philistines. 33Ibrahim planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and called there on the name of Allah, the Everlasting God. 34Ibrahim lived as a foreigner in the land of the Philistines many days.
[1] 21:3 Ishaq means “He laughs.“
[2] 21:10 Quoted in the Injil, Galatians 4:30.
[3] 21:12 Quoted by the Injil in Romans 9:7 and Hebrews 11:18.
[4] 21:31 Beersheba can mean “well of the oath“ or “well of seven.“