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Ishmael Is Sent Away.[a] Isaac grew and was weaned. On the day that he was weaned, Abraham threw a great banquet. But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, the one whom she had borne to Abraham, playing with[b] her son Isaac. 10 She said to Abraham, “Send this slave and her son away, for the son of this slave must not be an heir together with my son Isaac.”

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Footnotes

  1. Genesis 21:8 The two stories that follow are from the Elohist tradition. According to a number of critics, the first story is another version of the Yahwist-Priestly story in 16:4-16. It is to be noted, among other things, that Ishmael is here shown as a boy, while at the period here indicated he would have been an adolescent.
    St. Paul uses the incident as an argument that the new Covenant replaces the old (Gal 4:21-31).
  2. Genesis 21:9 Playing with: this can also be translated as mocking. According to the later Jewish tradition, the word here refers to immoral or idolatrous practices on the part of Ishmael (“mocking” in the sense of Gen 39:14, 17); St. Paul, however, interprets it as meaning persecution (Gal 4:29), perhaps resulting from envy.