God cared for Sarah just as he had promised. At the appointed time she bore Abraham a son in their old age. Abraham named him Isaac and circumcised him when he was eight days old, as God had commanded. Abraham was one hundred years old at Isaac’s birth.
Sarah said God had brought her laughter and everyone who heard would laugh with her. No one would have predicted that she would nurse a child for Abraham. When Isaac grew and was weaned, Abraham held a great feast.
Sarah saw Ishmael, Hagar’s son, with Isaac and demanded that the servant woman and her son be sent away, insisting Ishmael must not share Isaac’s inheritance. Abraham was deeply distressed because Ishmael was his son. God told him to listen to Sarah: the promised line would be named through Isaac, yet Ishmael would also become a nation because he was Abraham’s child.
Early the next morning Abraham gave Hagar bread and a skin of water and sent her away with the boy. She wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. When the water was gone, she placed the boy under a bush, sat at a distance, and wept because she could not bear to watch him die.
God heard the boy. A messenger told Hagar not to fear but to lift him up and hold him, for God would make him a great nation. God opened her eyes and she saw a well. She filled the skin and gave the boy water.
God was with Ishmael as he grew. He lived in the wilderness of Paran and became an archer. His mother found him a wife from Egypt.