After Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, Abraham moved his tent and his camp away from that part of the land, and went to live near a place called Gerar, in the southwest, not far from the Great Sea.  And there at last, the child whom God had promised to Abraham and Sarah, his wife, was born, when Abraham, his father, was a very old man.

They named this child Isaac, as the angel had told them he should be named.  And Abraham and Sarah were so happy to have a little boy, that after a time they gave a great feast and invited all the people to come and rejoice with them, and all in honor of the little Isaac.

Now Sarah had a maid named Hagar, an Egyptian woman, who ran away from her mistress, and saw an angel by a well, and afterward came back to Sarah.  She, too, had a child and his name was Ishmael.  So now there were two boys in Abraham’s tent, the older boy, Ishmael, the son of Hagar, and the younger boy, Isaac, the son of Abraham and Sarah.

Ishmael did not like the little Isaac, and did not treat him kindly.  This made his mother Sarah very angry, and she said to her husband: 

“I do not wish to have this boy Ishmael growing up with my son Isaac.  Send away Hagar and her boy, for they are a trouble to me.”

And Abraham felt very sorry to have trouble come between Sarah and Hagar, and between Isaac and Ishmael; for Abraham was a kind and good man, and he was friendly to them all.

But the Lord said to Abraham, “Do not be troubled about Ishmael and his mother.  Do as Sarah has asked you to do, and send them away.  It is best that Isaac should be left alone in your tent, for he is to receive everything that is yours.  I the Lord will take care of Ishmael, and will make a great people of his descendants, those who shall come from him.”

So the next morning Abraham sent Hagar and her boy away, expecting them to go back to the land of Egypt, from which Hagar had come.  He gave them some food for the journey, and a bottle of water to drink by the way.  The bottles in that country are not like ours, made of glass.  They are made from the skin of a goat.  One of these skin-bottles Abraham filled with water and gave to Hagar.

And Hagar went away from Abraham’s tent, leading her little boy.  But in some way she lost the road, and wandered over the desert, not knowing where she was, until all the water in the bottle was used up; and her poor boy in the hot sun and the burning sand had nothing to drink.  She thought that he would die of his terrible thirst; and she laid him down under a little bush; and then she went away, for she said to herself: 

[Illustration:  In some way she lost the road]

“I cannot bear to look at my poor boy suffering and dying for want of water.”

And just at that moment, while Hagar was crying, and her boy was moaning with thirst, she heard a voice saying to her: 

“Hagar, what is your trouble?  Do not be afraid.  God has heard your cry and the cry of your child.  God will take care of you both, and will make of your boy a great nation of people.”