The Birth of Isaac and the Sending Away of Hagar and Ishmael

"And the Lord remembered Sarah as He had said." The promise given a quarter of a century earlier is fulfilled exactly at the appointed time: a son is born to Abraham at a hundred and Sarah at ninety. His name is Isaac, from tzechok, laughter — both parents had laughed at the promise, and now Sarah says, "God has made laughter for me." Isaac is the first person circumcised on the eighth day as commanded. On the day he is weaned Abraham makes a great feast, and there the rupture comes: Sarah sees Ishmael "making sport" and demands that the maid and her son be sent away. Abraham is deeply grieved, and then comes a remarkable line: "In all that Sarah says to you, listen to her voice" — her prophetic gift exceeded his. Hagar's water runs out in the wilderness of Beersheba; she sets the boy under a bush and weeps, but the boy's voice is heard and an angel shows her a well.