Genesis 21:16-34 ▼

16 She went and sat down opposite him, a good way off, about a bow shot away. For she said, |Do not let me see the death of the boy.| So she sat across from him, and he wept loudly.

17 And God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar from the sky and said to her, |What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid. For God has heard the voice of the boy where he is.

18 Get up, lift up the boy, and hold him by your hand. For I will make him a great nation.|

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

20 God was with the boy, and he grew. He lived in the wilderness, and became, as he grew up, an archer.

21 He lived in the wilderness of Paran. His mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

22 It happened at that time, that Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army spoke to Abraham, saying, |God is with you in all that you do.

23 Now, therefore, swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me, nor with my son, nor with my son's son. But according to the kindness that I have done to you, you shall do to me, and to the land in which you have lived as a foreigner.|

24 And Abraham said, |I swear.|

25 Abraham complained to Abimelech because of a water well, which Abimelech's servants had violently taken away.

26 Abimelech said, |I do not know who has done this thing. Neither did you tell me, neither did I hear of it, until today.|

27 Abraham took sheep and cattle, and gave them to Abimelech, and the two of them made a covenant.

28 Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves.

29 Abimelech said to Abraham, |What do these seven ewe lambs which you have set by themselves mean?|

30 He said, |You shall take these seven ewe lambs from my hand, that it may be a witness to me, that I have dug this well.|

31 Therefore he called that place Beersheba, because they both swore there.

32 So they made a covenant at Beersheba. Abimelech rose up with Phicol, the commander of his army, and they returned into the land of the Philistines.

33 And he planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and called there on the name of the LORD, El Olam.

34 Abraham lived as a foreigner in the land of the Philistines many days.