Genesis 21 Summary

The LORD fulfills His promise as Sarah conceives and bears Abraham a son in his old age; Abraham names the boy Isaac, circumcises him on the eighth day, and Sarah rejoices that God has caused her to laugh. When Sarah observes Ishmael mocking at Isaac's weaning feast, she demands that Abraham expel Hagar and her son; Abraham is grieved but God instructs him to comply, promising that Ishmael too will become a great nation. Hagar and Ishmael are sent away with bread and water, wander in the wilderness of Beer-sheba until their water is spent, and are miraculously sustained when God hears the lad's cry and opens Hagar's eyes to see a well; Ishmael grows up in the wilderness of Paran and becomes an archer, and his mother secures him a wife from Egypt. The chapter closes with Abimelech and his military commander Phichol seeking a covenant of mutual good faith with Abraham at Beer-sheba, a dispute over a well being settled by Abraham's gift of seven ewe lambs as witness, after which Abraham plants a grove and calls on the name of the LORD, the everlasting God.