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Chapter 21
The Birth of Isaac
1Now the LORD was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what he had promised.
2Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him.
3Abraham gave the name IsaacIsaac means he laughs. to the son Sarah bore him.
4When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him.
5Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
6Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.”
7And she added, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”
Hagar and Ishmael Sent Away
8The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast.
9But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking,
10and 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.”
11The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son.
12But 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 offspringOr seed will be reckoned.
13I will make the son of the maidservant into a nation also, because he is your offspring.”
14Early 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.
15When the water in the skin was gone, she put the boy under one of the bushes.
16Then 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, sheHebrew; Septuagint the child began to sob.
17God 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.
18Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.”
19Then 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.
20God was with the boy as he grew up. He lived in the desert and became an archer.
21While he was living in the Desert of Paran, his mother got a wife for him from Egypt.
The Treaty at Beersheba
22At that time Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his forces said to Abraham, “God is with you in everything you do.
23Now 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.”
24Abraham said, “I swear it.”
25Then Abraham complained to Abimelech about a well of water that Abimelech's servants had seized.
26But Abimelech said, “I don't know who has done this. You did not tell me, and I heard about it only today.”
27So Abraham brought sheep and cattle and gave them to Abimelech, and the two men made a treaty.
28Abraham set apart seven ewe lambs from the flock,
29and Abimelech asked Abraham, “What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs you have set apart by themselves?”
30He replied, “Accept these seven lambs from my hand as a witness that I dug this well.”
31So that place was called Beersheba,Beersheba can mean well of seven or well of the oath. because the two men swore an oath there.
32After the treaty had been made at Beersheba, Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his forces returned to the land of the Philistines.
33Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there he called upon the name of the LORD, the Eternal God.
34And Abraham stayed in the land of the Philistines for a long time.
Chapter 22
Abraham Tested
1Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
2Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.”
3Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about.
4On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.
5He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”
6Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together,
7Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”
“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.
“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
8Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.
9When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.
10Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.
11But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
12“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
13Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ramMany manuscripts of the Masoretic Text, Samaritan Pentateuch, Septuagint and Syriac; most manuscripts of the Masoretic Text a ram behind him caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.
14So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.”
15The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time
16and said, “I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son,
17I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies,
18and through your offspringOr seed all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”
19Then Abraham returned to his servants, and they set off together for Beersheba. And Abraham stayed in Beersheba.
Nahor's Sons
20Some time later Abraham was told, “Milcah is also a mother; she has borne sons to your brother Nahor:
21Uz the firstborn, Buz his brother, Kemuel (the father of Aram),
22Kesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph and Bethuel.”
23Bethuel became the father of Rebekah. Milcah bore these eight sons to Abraham's brother Nahor.
24His concubine, whose name was Reumah, also had sons: Tebah, Gaham, Tahash and Maacah.
Chapter 23
The Death of Sarah
1Sarah lived to be a hundred and twenty-seven years old.
2She died at Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went to mourn for Sarah and to weep over her.
3Then Abraham rose from beside his dead wife and spoke to the Hittites.Or the sons of Heth; also in verses 5, 7, 10, 16, 18 and 20 He said,
4“I am an alien and a stranger among you. Sell me some property for a burial site here so I can bury my dead.”
5The Hittites replied to Abraham,
6“Sir, listen to us. You are a mighty prince among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our tombs. None of us will refuse you his tomb for burying your dead.”
7Then Abraham rose and bowed down before the people of the land, the Hittites.
8He said to them, “If you are willing to let me bury my dead, then listen to me and intercede with Ephron son of Zohar on my behalf
9so he will sell me the cave of Machpelah, which belongs to him and is at the end of his field. Ask him to sell it to me for the full price as a burial site among you.”
10Ephron the Hittite was sitting among his people and he replied to Abraham in the hearing of all the Hittites who had come to the gate of his city.
11“No, my lord,” he said. “Listen to me; I giveOr sell you the field, and I giveOr sell you the cave that is in it. I giveOr sell it to you in the presence of my people. Bury your dead.”
12Again Abraham bowed down before the people of the land
13and he said to Ephron in their hearing, “Listen to me, if you will. I will pay the price of the field. Accept it from me so I can bury my dead there.”
14Ephron answered Abraham,
15“Listen to me, my lord; the land is worth four hundred shekelsThat is, about 10 pounds (about 4.5 kilograms) of silver, but what is that between me and you? Bury your dead.”
16Abraham agreed to Ephron's terms and weighed out for him the price he had named in the hearing of the Hittites: four hundred shekels of silver, according to the weight current among the merchants.
17So Ephron's field in Machpelah near Mamre—both the field and the cave in it, and all the trees within the borders of the field—was deeded
18to Abraham as his property in the presence of all the Hittites who had come to the gate of the city.
19Afterward Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave in the field of Machpelah near Mamre (which is at Hebron) in the land of Canaan.
20So the field and the cave in it were deeded to Abraham by the Hittites as a burial site.

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