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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" /><title>Genesis 21 NIV</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/genesis/21.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="../topmenuchap/genesis/21-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="http://biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">NIV</a> > Genesis 21</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../genesis/20.htm" title="Genesis 20">◄</a> Genesis 21 <a href="../genesis/22.htm" title="Genesis 22">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading"><table width="100%"><tr><td width="99%" valign="top">New International Version</td><td width="1%" valign="top"><a href="/p/niv/esv/genesis/21.shtml" style="color:#001320" title="Parallel Chapters"> Par ▾ </a></tr></table></div><div class="chap"><p class="sectionhead">The Birth of Isaac</p><p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/21-1.htm"><b>1</b></a></span>Now the <span class="name">Lord</span> was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the <span class="name">Lord</span> did for Sarah what he had promised. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/21-2.htm"><b>2</b></a></span>Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/21-3.htm"><b>3</b></a></span>Abraham gave the name Isaac <span class="nivfootnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Isaac means he laughs.">a</a></sup></span> to the son Sarah bore him. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/21-4.htm"><b>4</b></a></span>When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/21-5.htm"><b>5</b></a></span>Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/21-6.htm"><b>6</b></a></span>Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/21-7.htm"><b>7</b></a></span>And she added, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”</p> <p class="sectionhead">Hagar and Ishmael Sent Away</p><p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/21-8.htm"><b>8</b></a></span>The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/21-9.htm"><b>9</b></a></span>But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/21-10.htm"><b>10</b></a></span>and she said to Abraham, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/21-11.htm"><b>11</b></a></span>The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/21-12.htm"><b>12</b></a></span>But God said to him, “Do not be so distressed about the boy and your slave woman. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring <span class="nivfootnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Or seed">b</a></sup></span> will be reckoned. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/21-13.htm"><b>13</b></a></span>I will make the son of the slave into a nation also, because he is your offspring.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/21-14.htm"><b>14</b></a></span>Early 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.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/21-15.htm"><b>15</b></a></span>When the water in the skin was gone, she put the boy under one of the bushes. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/21-16.htm"><b>16</b></a></span>Then she went off and sat down about a bowshot away, for she thought, “I cannot watch the boy die.” And as she sat there, she <span class="nivfootnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Hebrew; Septuagint the child">c</a></sup></span> began to sob.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/21-17.htm"><b>17</b></a></span>God 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. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/21-18.htm"><b>18</b></a></span>Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/21-19.htm"><b>19</b></a></span>Then 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.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/21-20.htm"><b>20</b></a></span>God was with the boy as he grew up. He lived in the desert and became an archer. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/21-21.htm"><b>21</b></a></span>While he was living in the Desert of Paran, his mother got a wife for him from Egypt.</p> <p class="sectionhead">The Treaty at Beersheba</p><p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/21-22.htm"><b>22</b></a></span>At that time Abimelek and Phicol the commander of his forces said to Abraham, “God is with you in everything you do. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/21-23.htm"><b>23</b></a></span>Now 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 now reside as a foreigner the same kindness I have shown to you.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/21-24.htm"><b>24</b></a></span>Abraham said, “I swear it.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/21-25.htm"><b>25</b></a></span>Then Abraham complained to Abimelek about a well of water that Abimelek’s servants had seized. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/21-26.htm"><b>26</b></a></span>But Abimelek said, “I don’t know who has done this. You did not tell me, and I heard about it only today.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/21-27.htm"><b>27</b></a></span>So Abraham brought sheep and cattle and gave them to Abimelek, and the two men made a treaty. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/21-28.htm"><b>28</b></a></span>Abraham set apart seven ewe lambs from the flock, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/21-29.htm"><b>29</b></a></span>and Abimelek asked Abraham, “What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs you have set apart by themselves?”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/21-30.htm"><b>30</b></a></span>He replied, “Accept these seven lambs from my hand as a witness that I dug this well.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/21-31.htm"><b>31</b></a></span>So that place was called Beersheba, <span class="nivfootnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Beersheba can mean well of seven and well of the oath.">d</a></sup></span> because the two men swore an oath there.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/21-32.htm"><b>32</b></a></span>After the treaty had been made at Beersheba, Abimelek and Phicol the commander of his forces returned to the land of the Philistines. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/21-33.htm"><b>33</b></a></span>Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there he called on the name of the <span class="name">Lord</span>, the Eternal God. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/21-34.htm"><b>34</b></a></span>And Abraham stayed in the land of the Philistines for a long time.</p><hr size="1" color="DDEEFF"><span class="mainfootnotes"><A name="footnotes"></a><span class="mainfootnoteshdg">Footnotes:</span><br><span class="nivfootnotesbot">a</span> <span class="fnverse">3</span> <span class="footnotebot"><i>Isaac</i> means <i>he laughs.</i></span><br><span class="nivfootnotesbot">b</span> <span class="fnverse">12</span> <span class="footnotebot">Or <i>seed</i></span><br><span class="nivfootnotesbot">c</span> <span class="fnverse">16</span> <span class="footnotebot">Hebrew; Septuagint <i>the child</i></span><br><span class="nivfootnotesbot">d</span> <span class="fnverse">31</span> <span class="footnotebot"><i>Beersheba</i> can mean <i>well of seven</i> and <i>well of the oath.</i></span><br><hr size="1" color="DDEEFF"></div></div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center"><p class="ntext"><a href="http://niv.scripturetext.com/version.htm">New International Version</a> (NIV)</p><p class="ntext2">Holy Bible, New International Version&reg, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by <a href="http://biblica.com">Biblica, Inc.</a>® Used by permission. 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