Hagar and Ishmael Sent Away

⁸ The child grew, and was weaned; and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.⁹But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, playing with her son Isaac. ¹⁰So she said to Abraham, ‘Cast out this slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit along with my son Isaac.’¹¹The matter was very distressing to Abraham on account of his son.¹²But God said to Abraham, ‘Do not be distressed because of the boy and because of your slave woman; whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for it is through Isaac that offspring shall be named after you.¹³As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a nation of him also, because he is your offspring.’¹⁴So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed, and wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba. ¹⁵ When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes.¹⁶Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot; for she said, ‘Do not let me look on the death of the child.’ And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept.¹⁷And God heard the voice of the boy; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, ‘What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is.¹⁸Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him.’¹⁹Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. She went, and filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink. ²⁰ God was with the boy, and he grew up; he lived in the wilderness, and became an expert with the bow.²¹He lived in the wilderness of Paran; and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

The Anointing at Bethany

³ While he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment of nard, and she broke open the jar and poured the ointment on his head.⁴But some were there who said to one another in anger, ‘Why was the ointment wasted in this way?⁵For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor.’ And they scolded her.⁶But Jesus said, ‘Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has performed a good service for me.⁷For you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish; but you will not always have me.⁸She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial.⁹Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.’