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¹The LORD graciously remembered and visited Sarah as He had said, and the LORD did for her as He had promised.

²So Sarah conceived and gave birth to a son for Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time of which God had spoken to him.

³Abraham named his son Isaac (laughter), the son to whom Sarah gave birth.

⁴So Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, just as God had commanded him.

⁵Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born.

⁶Sarah said, "God has made me laugh; all who hear [about our good news] will laugh with me."

⁷And she said, "Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? For I have given birth to a son by him in his old age."

⁸The child [Isaac] grew and was weaned, and Abraham held a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.

⁹Now [as time went on] Sarah saw [Ishmael] the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking [Isaac].

¹⁰Therefore she said to Abraham, "Drive out this maid and her son, for the son of this maid shall not be an heir with my son Isaac."

¹¹The situation distressed Abraham greatly because of his son [Ishmael].

¹²God said to Abraham, "Do not let it distress you because of Ishmael and your maid; whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her and do what she asks, for your descendants will be named through Isaac.

¹³And I will also make a nation of [Ishmael] the son of the maid, because he is your descendant."

¹⁴So Abraham got up early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar, putting them on her shoulder, and gave her the boy, and sent her away. And she left [but lost her way] and wandered [aimlessly] in the Wilderness of Beersheba.

¹⁵When the water in the skin was all gone, Hagar abandoned the boy under one of the bushes.

¹⁶Then she went and sat down opposite him, about a bowshot away, for she said, "Do not let me see the boy die." And as she sat down opposite him, she raised her voice and wept.

¹⁷God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, "What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid, for God has heard the voice of the boy from where he is [resting].

¹⁸Get up, help the boy up, and hold him by the hand, for I will make him a great nation."

¹⁹Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water; and she went and filled the [empty] skin with water and gave the boy a drink.

²⁰God was with Ishmael, and he grew and developed; and he lived in the wilderness and became an [expert] archer.

²¹He lived in the wilderness of Paran; and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

²²Now at that time Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, said to Abraham, "God is with you in everything you do;

²³so now, swear to me here by God that you will not deal unfairly with me [by breaking any agreements we have] or with my son or with my descendants, but as I have treated you with kindness, you shall do the same to me and to the land in which you have sojourned (temporarily lived)."

²⁴And Abraham said, "I will swear."

²⁵Then Abraham complained to Abimelech about a well of water which the servants of Abimelech had [violently] seized [from him],

²⁶Abimelech said, "I do not know who did this thing. Indeed, you did not tell me, and I did not hear of it until today."

²⁷So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two men made a covenant (binding agreement).

²⁸Then Abraham set apart seven ewe lambs of the flock,

²⁹and Abimelech said to Abraham, "What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs which you have set apart?"

³⁰Abraham said, "You are to accept these seven ewe lambs from me as a witness for me, that I dug this well."

³¹Therefore that place was called Beersheba (Well of the Oath or Well of the Seven), because there the two of them swore an oath.

³²So they made a covenant at Beersheba; then Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, got up and returned to the land of the Philistines.

³³Abraham planted a tamarisk tree at Beersheba, and there he called on the name of the LORD [in prayer], the Eternal God.

³⁴And Abraham lived [as a resident alien] in the land of the Philistines for many days.

¹Now after these things, God tested [the faith and commitment of] Abraham and said to him, "Abraham!" And he answered, "Here I am."

²God said, "Take now your son, your only son [of promise], whom you love, Isaac, and go to the region of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you."

³So Abraham got up early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and his son Isaac; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and then he got up and went to the place of which God had told him.

⁴On the third day [of travel] Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.

⁵Abraham said to his servants, "Settle down and stay here with the donkey; the young man and I will go over there and worship [God], and we will come back to you."

⁶Then Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it on [the shoulders of] Isaac his son, and he took the fire (firepot) in his own hand and the [sacrificial] knife; and the two of them walked on together.

⁷And Isaac said to Abraham, "My father!" And he said, "Here I am, my son." Isaac said, "Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?"

⁸Abraham said, "My son, God will provide for Himself a lamb for the burnt offering." So the two walked on together.

⁹When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood, and bound Isaac his son and placed him on the altar, on top of the wood.

¹⁰Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son.

¹¹But the Angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" He answered, "Here I am."

¹²The LORD said, "Do not reach out [with the knife in] your hand against the boy, and do nothing to [harm] him; for now I know that you fear God [with reverence and profound respect], since you have not withheld from Me your son, your only son [of promise]."

¹³Then Abraham looked up and glanced around, and behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up for a burnt offering (ascending sacrifice) instead of his son.

¹⁴So Abraham named that place The LORD Will Provide. And it is said to this day, "On the mountain of the LORD it will be seen and provided."

¹⁵The Angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time

¹⁶and said, "By Myself (on the basis of Who I Am) I have sworn [an oath], declares the LORD, that since you have done this thing and have not withheld [from Me] your son, your only son [of promise],

¹⁷indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your descendants like the stars of the heavens and like the sand on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies [as conquerors].

¹⁸Through your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have heard and obeyed My voice."

¹⁹So Abraham returned to his servants, and they got up and went with him to Beersheba; and Abraham settled in Beersheba.

²⁰Now after these things Abraham was told, "Milcah has borne children to your brother Nahor:

²¹Uz the firstborn and Buz his brother and Kemuel the father of Aram,

²²Chesed and Hazo and Pildash and Jidlaph and Bethuel."

²³Bethuel became the father of Rebekah. These eight [children] Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham's brother.

²⁴Nahor's concubine, whose name was Reumah, gave birth to Tebah and Gaham and Tahash and Maacah.

¹Sarah lived a hundred and twenty-seven years; this was the length of the life of Sarah.

²Sarah died in Kiriath-arba(that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her.

³Then Abraham stood up before his dead [wife's body], and spoke to the sons of Heth (Hittites), saying,

⁴"I am a stranger and a sojourner (resident alien) among you; give (sell) me property for a burial place among you so that I may bury my dead [in the proper manner]."

⁵The Hittites replied to Abraham,

⁶"Listen to us, my lord; you are a prince of God [a mighty prince] among us; bury your dead in the choicest of our graves; none of us will refuse you his grave or hinder you from burying your dead [wife]."

⁷So Abraham stood up and bowed to the people of the land, the Hittites.

⁸And Abraham said to them, "If you are willing to grant my dead a [proper] burial, listen to me, and plead with Ephron the son of Zohar for me,

⁹so that he may give (sell) me the cave of Machpelah which he owns—it is at the end of his field; let him give it to me here in your presence for the full price as a burial site [which I may keep forever among you]."

¹⁰Now Ephron was present there among the sons of Heth; so within the hearing of all the sons of Heth and all who were entering the gate of his city, Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham, saying,

¹¹"No, my lord, hear me; I give you the [entire] field, and I also give you the cave that is in it. In the presence of the men of my people I give (sell) it to you; bury your dead [there]."

¹²Then Abraham bowed down before the people of the land.

¹³He said to Ephron in the presence of the people of the land, "If you will only please listen to me and accept my offer. I will give you the price of the field; accept it from me and I will bury my dead there."

¹⁴Ephron replied to Abraham,

¹⁵"My lord, listen to me. The land [you seek] is worth four hundred shekels of silver; what is that between you and me? So bury your dead."

¹⁶So Abraham listened to Ephron [and agreed to his terms]; and he weighed out for Ephron the [amount of] silver which he had named in the hearing of the Hittites: four hundred shekels of silver, according to the weights current among the merchants.

¹⁷So the field of Ephron in Machpelah, which was to the east of Mamre (Hebron)—the field and the cave which was in it, and all the trees that were in the field and in all its borders around it—were deeded over [legally]

¹⁸to Abraham as his possession in the presence of the Hittites, before all who were entering at the gate of his city.

¹⁹After this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah to the east of Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan.

²⁰The field and the cave in it were deeded over to Abraham by the Hittites as a [permanent] possession and burial place.