King James Version · The patriarchs
Genesis 21
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And visited as he had said, and did unto as he had spoken. For conceived, and a son in his old age, of which had spoken to him. And called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom to him, . And his son being eight days old, as had commanded him. And was an hundred years old, when his son was born unto him. And said, hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me. And she said, Who would have said unto , that should have given children suck? for I have born him a son in his old age. And the child grew, and was weaned: and made a great feast the same day that was weaned. And saw the son of the , which she had born unto , mocking. Wherefore she said unto , Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be with my son, even with . And the thing was very grievous in ’s sight because of his son. And said unto , Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that hath said unto thee, unto her voice; for in shall thy be called. And also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is thy . And rose up early in the morning, and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave it unto , putting it on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away: and she departed, and wandered in of Beer–sheba. And the water was spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs. And she went, and sat her down over against him a good way off, as it were a bowshot: for she said, Let me not see the of the child. And she sat over against him, and lift up her voice, and wept. And heard the voice of the lad; and called to out of , and said unto her, What aileth thee, ? fear not; for hath heard the voice of the lad where he is. Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand; for I will make him a great nation. And opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink. And was with the lad; and he grew, and dwelt in , and became an archer. And he dwelt in of : and his mother took him a wife out of the land of . And it came to pass at that time, that and Phichol the chief captain of his host spake unto , saying, is with thee in all that thou doest: Now therefore unto me here by that thou wilt not deal falsely with me, nor with my son, nor with my son’s son: but according to the kindness that I have done unto thee, thou shalt do unto me, and to the land wherein thou hast sojourned. And said, I will . And reproved because of a well of water, which ’s servants had violently taken away. And said, I wot not who hath done this thing: neither didst thou tell me, neither yet heard I of it, but to day. And took sheep and oxen, and gave them unto ; and both of them made a . 28And set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves. And said unto , What mean these seven ewe lambs which thou hast set by themselves? And he said, For these seven ewe lambs shalt thou take of my hand, that they may be a unto me, that I have digged this well. Wherefore he called that place Beer–sheba; because there they sware both of them. Thus they made a at Beer–sheba: then rose up, and Phichol the chief captain of his host, and they returned into the land of the . And planted a grove in Beer–sheba, and called there on the name of , the . And sojourned in the ’ land many days.
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
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