World English Bible · The patriarchs
Genesis 21
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visited as he had said, and did to as he had spoken. conceived, and bore a son in his old age, of which had spoken to him. called his son who was born to him, whom bore to him, . his son, , when he was eight days old, as had commanded him. was one hundred years old when his son, , was born to him. said, " has made me laugh. Everyone who hears will laugh with me." She said, "Who would have said to that would nurse children? For I have borne him a son in his old age." The child grew and was weaned. made a great feast on the day that was weaned. saw the son of the , whom she had borne to , mocking. Therefore she said to , "Cast out this servant and her son! For the son of this servant will not be with my son, ." The thing was very grievous in sight on account of his son. said to , "Don't let it be grievous in your sight because of the boy, and because of . In all that says to you, listen to her voice. For will be named through . I will also make a nation of the son of the servant, because he is your child." rose up early in the morning, and took bread and a container of water, and gave it to , putting it on her shoulder; and gave her the child, and sent her away. She departed, and wandered in of . The water in the container was spent, and she put the child under one of the shrubs. She went and sat down opposite him, a good way off, about a bow shot away. For she said, "Don't let me see the of the child." She sat opposite him, and lifted up her voice, and wept. heard the voice of the boy. called to out of , and said to her, "What troubles you, ? Don't be afraid. For has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Get up, lift up the boy, and hold him with your hand. For I will make him a great nation." opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. She went, filled the container with water, and gave the boy a drink. was with the boy, and he grew. He lived in , and as he grew up, he became an archer. He lived in of . His mother got a wife for him out of the land of . At that time, and the captain of his army spoke to , saying, " is with you in all that you do. Now, therefore, to me here by 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 ." said, "I will ." complained to because of a water well, which servants had violently taken away. said, "I don't know who has done this thing. You didn't tell me, and I didn't hear of it until today." took sheep and cattle, and gave them to . Those two made a . 28 set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves. said to , "What do these seven ewe lambs, which you have set by themselves, mean?" He said, "You shall take these seven ewe lambs from my hand, that it may be a to me, that I have dug this well." Therefore he called that place , because they both an there. So they made a at . rose up with , the captain of his army, and they returned into the land of the . planted a tamarisk tree in , and there he called on the name of , the . lived as a in the land of the many days.
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The world at this moment · The patriarchs, 2000 BC to 1600 BC ›
Abraham's family as herdsmen among settled Canaanite city-states, in a world where Egypt and Mesopotamia are the great powers and Canaan is the corridor between them.
- Mesopotamia
- Abraham's own century is Hammurabi's. The great empire of Ur has already fallen, and Babylon rises under a king who published a law code on a stone pillar for everyone to see. Reading Genesis alongside Hammurabi's laws is illuminating in both directions: some provisions are strikingly similar, and the places where Israel's later law diverges are the places worth stopping at.
- Egypt
- The Middle Kingdom, wealthy, bureaucratic, and organised around the Nile flood. Egyptian tomb paintings from this period show Semitic traders arriving with donkeys and striped cloaks, which is more or less the picture Genesis gives of a family going down to Egypt in a famine. Toward the end of the era the Hyksos, rulers of Semitic origin, take the delta.
- Anatolia and the Aegean
- Assyrian merchants run a long-distance trading colony at Kanesh in Anatolia, leaving thousands of clay letters about copper, tin, and debt. On Crete the Minoan palaces are at their height, with plumbing, frescoes, and a script nobody has yet read.
- Further afield
- The Indus Valley cities are in decline after centuries of grid-planned streets and drains. In China the Erlitou culture is building the first palace complexes. Stonehenge is standing and already old.
All of Genesis