Genesis 21

All 34 verses in the Clear Bible Translation. Tap a verse to compare the KJV and read what it means.

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1. 1The LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did to Sarah as he had spoken.
2. 2Sarah became pregnant and gave Abraham a son in his old age, at the exact time God had told him.
3. 3Abraham named the son that Sarah bore to him Isaac.
4. 4When Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, just as God had commanded.
5. 5Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born.
6. 6Sarah said, "God has made me laugh, and everyone who hears about this will laugh along with me."
7. 7She also said, "Who would have told Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have given him a son in his old age."
8. 8The child grew, and on the day Isaac was weaned, Abraham held a great feast.
9. 9Sarah noticed that the son Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking.
10. 10So she told Abraham, "Send this slave woman and her son away, because the son of this slave woman will not share the inheritance with my son Isaac."
11. 11This deeply troubled Abraham because it concerned his son.
12. 12But God told Abraham, "Do not be troubled over the boy or your slave woman. Listen to everything Sarah tells you, because your descendants will be traced through Isaac."
13. 13"I will also make the slave woman's son into a nation, because he is your offspring."
14. 14Abraham got up early the next morning, took some bread and a container of water, and placed them on Hagar's shoulder. He gave her the child and sent her on her way. She left and roamed through the wilderness of Beersheba.
15. 15When the water in the container ran out, she placed the child beneath one of the bushes.
16. 16Then she walked away and sat down at a distance, about as far as an arrow flies, because she said, "I cannot watch the child die." Sitting there across from him, she began to cry aloud.
17. 17God heard the boy's voice, and the angel of God called out to Hagar from heaven, saying, "What is wrong, Hagar? Do not be afraid, for God has heard the boy's voice right where he is."
18. 18"Get up, pick up the boy, and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation."
19. 19Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. She went over, filled the container with water, and gave the boy a drink.
20. 20God was with the boy as he grew up. He lived in the wilderness and became an archer.
21. 21He settled in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother chose a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
22. 22Around that time, Abimelech and Phichol, the commander of his army, spoke to Abraham, saying, "God is with you in everything you do."
23. 23"So now, swear to me here before God that you will not deal dishonestly with me, my children, or my descendants. Show me and the land where you have been living the same kindness I have shown you."
24. 24Abraham replied, "I swear it."
25. 25Abraham then confronted Abimelech about a well of water that Abimelech's servants had seized by force.
26. 26Abimelech answered, "I have no idea who did this. You never mentioned it to me, and I only heard about it today."
27. 27Abraham brought sheep and cattle and gave them to Abimelech, and the two of them made a covenant.
28. 28Abraham separated seven ewe lambs from the flock and set them apart.
29. 29Abimelech asked Abraham, "What is the purpose of these seven ewe lambs you have set apart?"
30. 30Abraham answered, "Accept these seven ewe lambs from me so that they will serve as proof that I dug this well."
31. 31That is why the place was named Beersheba, because the two of them swore an oath there.
32. 32After they made a covenant at Beersheba, Abimelech and Phichol, the commander of his army, departed and returned to the land of the Philistines.
33. 33Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and called on the name of the LORD there, the everlasting God.
34. 34Abraham lived in the land of the Philistines for a long time.