After the Lord had told Abraham that Sarah would give birth to a son, he moved down toward the sea coast, near the town of Gerar. The next year Sarah gave birth to a son, just as God had said. So Abraham named him Isaac, which means "he laughs," and circumcised him when he was a week old. Now Abraham was a hundred years old and Sarah was ninety when Isaac was born.

The boy grew and the day came for him to be weaned. On that day Abraham had a great feast, with lots of food to eat. But Sarah saw Ishmael, Abraham's oldest son by her maid Hagar, laughing at and making fun of her son Isaac. So she said to Abraham, "Send this slave woman and her son away, because her son is not going to share the property with my son." Now Abraham did not want to do this because Ishmael was his son too. But God said to Abraham, "Don't be worried about the boy and your slave woman. Do what Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that you will have the children I have promised. And I will make a nation out of the children of the slave woman's son too, because he is your child."

So the next day Abraham gave Hagar some bread and a water skin full of water. Then he sent her and Ishmael away. They left and wandered around in the desert county of Beer-Sheba. When the water skin was empty, she put the boy under a bush and went a little way off, saying, "I don't want to watch my child die." Then she sat down and cried. Then an angel of God spoke to her from heaven, "What's wrong, Hagar? Don't be afraid, because God has heard the boy crying. Go get him, because I will make his children a great nation." Then she looked up and saw a well. So she filled the water skin and gave the boy a drink.

God was with the boy and he grew up in the desert country of Paran. His mother found a wife for him from the land of Egypt.