Abram listens to her, and grants her request. Sarai
is then despised by the woman, and lays her complaint before her husband.
Abram delivers the concubine into the hands of the jealous and offended
wife, who dealt hardly with her, so that she fled to the wilderness.
Thirsty and miserable, she was found by an angel, near to a fountain of
water, who encouraged her by the promise that her child should be the
father of a numerous nation, but counseled her to return to Sarai, and
submit herself to her rule. In due time the child was born, and was called
Ishmael--destined to be a wild man, with whom the world should be at
enmity. Abram was now eighty-six years of age.

(M46) Fourteen years later the Lord again renewed his covenant that he
should be the father of many nations, who should possess forever the land
of Canaan. His name was changed to Abraham (father of a multitude), and
Sarai's was changed to Sarah. The Lord promised that from Sarah should
come the predicted blessing. The patriarch is still incredulous, and
laughs within himself; but God renews the promise, and henceforth Abraham
believes, and, as a test of his faith, he institutes, by divine direction,
the rite of circumcision to Ishmael and all the servants and slaves of his
family--even those "bought with money of the stranger."

(M47) In due time, according to prediction, Sarah gave birth to Isaac, who
was circumcised on the eighth day, when Abraham was 100 years old.
Ishmael, now a boy of fifteen, made a mockery of the event, whereupon
Sarah demanded that the son of the bondwoman, her slave, should be
expelled from the house, with his mother. Abraham was grieved also, and,
by divine counsel, they were both sent away, with some bread and a bottle
of water. The water was soon expended in the wilderness of Beersheba, and
Hagar sat down in despair and wept. God heard her lamentations, and she
opened her eyes and saw that she was seated near a well. The child was
preserved, and dwelt in the wilderness of Paran, pursuing the occupation
of an archer, or huntsman, and his mother found for him a wife out of the
land of Egypt. He is the ancestor of the twelve tribes of Bedouin Arabs,
among whom the Hamite blood predominated.

(M48) Meanwhile, as Abraham dwelt on the plains of Mamre, the destruction
of Sodom and Gomorrah took place, because not ten righteous persons could
be found therein. But Lot was rescued by angels, and afterward dwelt in a
cave, for fear, his wif