Hagar and Ishmael Sent Away

Time went by and the child grew and was weaned; and Abraham gave a party to celebrate the happy occasion. But when Sarah noticed Ishmael--the son of Abraham and the Egyptian girl Hagar--teasing Isaac, she turned upon Abraham and demanded, "Get rid of that slave girl and her son. He is not going to share your property with my son. I won't have it."

This upset Abraham very much, for after all, Ishmael too was his son.

But God told Abraham, "Don't be upset over the boy or your slave-girl wife; do as Sarah says, for Isaac is the son through whom my promise will be fulfilled. And I will make a nation of the descendants of the slave-girl's son, too, because he also is yours."

So Abraham got up early the next morning, prepared food for the journey, and strapped a canteen of water to Hagar's shoulders and sent her away with their son. She hiked out into the wilderness of Beer-sheba, wandering aimlessly. When the water was gone she left the child beneath a bush and went off and sat down a hundred yards or so away. "I don't want to watch him die," she said, and burst into tears, sobbing wildly.

Then God answered the lad's cries, and the Angel of God called to Hagar from the sky, "Hagar, what's wrong? Don't be afraid! For God has heared the lad's cries as he is lying there. Go and get the boy and comfort him, for I will make a great nation from his descendants."

Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well; so she refilled the canteen and gave the lad a drink. And God blessed the boy and he grew up in the wilderness of Paran, and became an expert archer. And his mother arranged a marriage for him with a girl from Egypt.

The Treaty at Beer-sheba »

TEXT SOURCE: (Genesis 21:8-21) The Children's Living Bible, ©1970 Tyndale House Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187
TITLE SOURCE: The New Student Bible, ©1992 Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids Michigan 49530