Genesis 21:8-21

Modern English Version

Hagar and Ishmael Depart

⁸ So the child grew and was weaned. Then Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned. ⁹ Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking. ¹⁰ Therefore she said to Abraham, “Throw out this slave woman and her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son, Isaac.”

¹¹ This matter was very displeasing in Abraham’s sight because of his son. ¹² But God said to Abraham, “Do not be upset concerning the boy and your slave wife. Whatever Sarah has said to you, listen to what she says, for in Isaac your descendants will be called. ¹³ Yet I will also make a nation of the son of the slave woman, because he is your offspring.”

¹⁴ So Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and sent her away with the child. So she departed and wandered in the Wilderness of Beersheba.

¹⁵ When the water in the skin was gone, she placed the child under one of the shrubs. ¹⁶ Then she went and sat down across from him at a distance of about a bowshot, for she said to herself, “Let me not see the death of the child.” She sat across from him, and lifted up her voice and wept.

¹⁷ And God heard the boy’s voice. Then the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven and said to her, “What is the matter with you, Hagar? Do not be afraid, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. ¹⁸ Arise, pick up the boy and hold him in your hands, for I will make him a great nation.”

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

²⁰ God was with the boy; and he grew and lived in the wilderness and became an archer. ²¹ He lived in the Wilderness of Paran, and his mother found a wife for him out of the land of Egypt.