---
title: "Genesis 21 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/genesis/21/
description: "Isaac is born. Agar and Ismael are cast forth. Genesis 21 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# Genesis 21

Genesis 21 is chapter 21 of 50 in the Book of Genesis. Here are all 34 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> Isaac is born. Agar and Ismael are cast forth.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Genesis 21 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. Then the Lord visited Sarah, just as he had promised; and he fulfilled what he had spoken.
2. And she conceived and gave birth to a son in her old age, at the time that God had foretold to her.
3. And Abraham called the name of his son, whom Sarah bore for him, Isaac.
4. And he circumcised him on the eighth day, just as God had instructed him,
5. when he was one hundred years old. Indeed, at this stage of his father’s life, Isaac was born.
6. And Sarah said: “God has brought laughter to me. Whoever will hear of it will laugh with me.”
7. And again, she said: “Hearing this, who would believe Abraham, that Sarah breast-fed a son, to whom she gave birth, despite being elderly?”
8. And the boy grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the day of his weaning.
9. And when Sarah had seen the son of Hagar the Egyptian playing with her son Isaac, she said to Abraham:
10. “Cast out this woman servant and her son. For the son of a woman servant will not be heir with my son Isaac.”
11. Abraham took this grievously, for the sake of his son.
12. And God said to him: “Let it not seem harsh to you concerning the boy and your woman servant. In all that Sarah has said to you, listen to her voice. For your offspring will be invoked in Isaac.
13. Yet I will also make the son of the woman servant into a great nation, for he is your offspring.”
14. And so Abraham arose in the morning, and taking bread and a skin of water, he placed it upon her shoulder, and he handed over the boy, and he released her. And when she had departed, she wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.
15. And when the water in the skin had been consumed, she set aside the boy, under one of the trees that were there.
16. And she moved away and sat in a distant area, as far as a bow can reach. For she said, “I shall not see the boy die.” And so, sitting opposite her, he lifted up his voice and wept.
17. But God heard the voice of the boy. And an Angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, saying: “What are you doing, Hagar? Do not be afraid. For God has heeded the voice of the boy, from the place where he is.
18. Rise up. Take the boy and hold him by the hand. For I will make of him a great nation.”
19. And God opened her eyes. And seeing a well of water, she went and filled the skin, and she gave the boy to drink.
20. And God was with him. And he grew, and he stayed in the wilderness, and he became a young man, an archer.
21. And he lived in the desert of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
22. At the same time, Abimelech and Phicol, the leader of his army, said to Abraham: “God is with you in everything that you do.
23. Therefore, swear by God that you will do no harm to me, and to my posterity, and to my stock. But according to the mercy that I have done to you, you will do to me and to the land, to which you have turned as a newcomer.”
24. And Abraham said, “I will swear.”
25. And he reproved Abimelech because of a well of water, which his servants had taken away by force.
26. And Abimelech responded, “I do not know who did this thing, but you also did not reveal it to me, nor have I heard of it, before today.”
27. And so Abraham took sheep and oxen, and he gave them to Abimelech. And both of them struck a pact.
28. And Abraham set aside seven female lambs from the flock.
29. Abimelech said to him, “What purpose have these seven female lambs, which you have caused to stand separately?”
30. But he said, “You will receive seven female lambs from my hand, so that they may be a testimony for me, that I dug this well.”
31. For this reason, that place was called Beersheba, because there both of them did swear.
32. And they initiated a pact on behalf of the well of oath.
33. Then Abimelech and Phicol, the leader of his army, rose up, and they returned to the land of the Palestinians. In truth, Abraham planted a grove in Beersheba, and there he called upon the name of the Lord God Eternal.
34. And he was a settler in the land of the Palestinians for many days.

## Genesis 21 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Visitavit autem Dominus Saram, sicut promiserat: et implevit quæ locutus est.
2. Concepitque et peperit filium in senectute sua, tempore quo prædixerat ei Deus.
3. Vocavitque Abraham nomen filii sui, quem genuit ei Sara, Isaac:
4. et circumcidit eum octavo die, sicut præceperat ei Deus,
5. cum centum esset annorum: hac quippe ætate patris, natus est Isaac.
6. Dixitque Sara: Risum fecit mihi Deus: quicumque audierit, corridebit mihi.
7. Rursumque ait: Quis auditurus crederet Abraham quod Sara lactaret filium, quem peperit ei jam seni?
8. Crevit igitur puer, et ablactatus est: fecitque Abraham grande convivium in die ablactationis ejus.
9. Cumque vidisset Sara filium Agar Ægyptiæ ludentem cum Isaac filio suo, dixit ad Abraham:
10. Ejice ancillam hanc, et filium ejus: non enim erit hæres filius ancillæ cum filio meo Isaac.
11. Dure accepit hoc Abraham pro filio suo.
12. Cui dixit Deus: Non tibi videatur asperum super puero, et super ancilla tua: omnia quæ dixerit tibi Sara, audi vocem ejus: quia in Isaac vocabitur tibi semen.
13. Sed et filium ancillæ faciam in gentem magnam, quia semen tuum est.
14. Surrexit itaque Abraham mane, et tollens panem et utrem aquæ, imposuit scapulæ ejus, tradiditque puerum, et dimisit eam. Quæ cum abiisset, errabat in solitudine Bersabee.
15. Cumque consumpta esset aqua in utre, abjecit puerum subter unam arborum, quæ ibi erant.
16. Et abiit, seditque e regione procul quantum potest arcus jacere: dixit enim: Non videbo morientem puerum: et sedens contra, levavit vocem suam et flevit.
17. Exaudivit autem Deus vocem pueri: vocavitque angelus Dei Agar de cælo, dicens: Quid agis Agar? noli timere: exaudivit enim Deus vocem pueri de loco in quo est.
18. Surge, tolle puerum, et tene manum illius: quia in gentem magnam faciam eum.
19. Aperuitque oculos ejus Deus: quæ videns puteum aquæ, abiit, et implevit utrem, deditque puero bibere.
20. Et fuit cum eo: qui crevit, et moratus est in solitudine, factusque est juvenis sagittarius.
21. Habitavitque in deserto Pharan, et accepit illi mater sua uxorem de terra Ægypti.
22. Eodem tempore dixit Abimelech, et Phicol princeps exercitus ejus, ad Abraham: Deus tecum est in universis quæ agis.
23. Jura ergo per Deum, ne noceas mihi, et posteris meis, stirpique meæ: sed juxta misericordiam, quam feci tibi, facies mihi, et terræ in qua versatus es advena.
24. Dixitque Abraham: Ego jurabo.
25. Et increpavit Abimelech propter puteum aquæ quem vi abstulerunt servi ejus.
26. Responditque Abimelech: Nescivi quis fecerit hanc rem: sed et tu non indicasti mihi, et ego non audivi præter hodie.
27. Tulit itaque Abraham oves et boves, et dedit Abimelech: percusseruntque ambo fœdus.
28. Et statuit Abraham septem agnas gregis seorsum.
29. Cui dixit Abimelech: Quid sibi volunt septem agnæ istæ, quas stare fecisti seorsum?
30. At ille: Septem, inquit, agnas accipies de manu mea: ut sint mihi in testimonium, quoniam ego fodi puteum istum.
31. Idcirco vocatus est locus ille Bersabee: quia ibi uterque juravit.
32. Et inierunt fœdus pro puteo juramenti.
33. Surrexit autem Abimelech, et Phicol princeps exercitus ejus, reversique sunt in terram Palæstinorum. Abraham vero plantavit nemus in Bersabee, et invocavit ibi nomen Domini Dei æterni.
34. Et fuit colonus terræ Palæstinorum diebus multis.

## Catechism of the Catholic Church

Paragraph numbers and the Catechism's own section headings (never quoted); text at vatican.va.
- CCC ¶ 489: "Conceived By the Power of the Holy Spirit and Born of the Virgin Mary" ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 332: Heaven and Earth ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 3: “Isaac” … This word signifies laughter.
- Verse 31: That is, the well of oath.

## Read at Mass (US)

- Wed, Jun 30, 2027 (computed): Wednesday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time — First Reading, Genesis 21:5, 8-20a

Dates after May 31, 2027 are computed by Bless from the US Lectionary cycle — confirm with your parish.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).