Genesis 21:8-10

"And the child grew, and was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. And Sarah saw the son of the Egyptian, whom she had borne unto Abraham, mocking. Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this handmaid and her son; for the son of this handmaid shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac."

"The child grew, and was weaned ..." "This occurred in his second or third year, as is usual among Orientals."[2] The apocryphal book of 2Maccabees has an account of a mother pleading with her son and saying, "My son, have pity upon me, that bore thee nine months in my womb, and gave thee suck three years, and nourished thee, and brought thee up unto this age" (2 Maccabees 2:27).

"And Sarah saw the son of Hagar ... mocking ..." It is deplorable that some of the later versions follow the erroneous rendition of this place found in the Septuagint (LXX), and thus translate "playing with," instead of "mocking," a manifest absurdity. Seventeen-year old boys do NOT play with infant children three years old! Such renditions are derived from the vain efforts of critical scholars to make an infant out of Ishmael himself in this episode, for the purpose of alleging "contradictions" in the text. First, the Septuagint (LXX) in this place is not original[3] and was erroneously received into the RSV from that source. As Aalders pointed out, the word here means "mockery, being exactly the same word used to describe the reaction of Lot's son-in-law when they were told about the coming destruction of Sodom."[4] (See Genesis 19:4). But there is more than this. Paul, in Galatians, made the behavior of Ishmael in this episode to be a type of the persecution of God's people in all the ages to come (Galatians 4:29,30). In light of the inspired testimony of the apostle Paul, the devious efforts to take the mockery out of this place are totally frustrated. It is just as true now, as when Paul wrote, that for men who do not know Christ, "at the reading of the old covenant ... a veil lies upon their hearts, and shall remain until they turn to the Lord." (2 Corinthians 3:12-18). Many of the scholarly errors being advocated today exist simply because N.T. light is not sought on that which they vainly try to interpret without it. One glorious word from the N.T. on a passage like this forever removes all doubt of exactly what is meant.

Sarah was perfectly within the rights of any perceptive mother who sought to protect the interest of her son. Ishmael was considerably older than Isaac, and Abraham was already of an advanced age, and Josephus was doubtless correct in attributing Sarah's action to her apprehension that, due to his being so much older than Isaac, Ishmael, "being older, would be able to do injuries to Isaac when their father would be dead."[5] The situation was absolutely impossible. Under the laws of the times, Ishmael was indeed an heir of Abraham, and, although he was not on a parity with Isaac, due to the secondary status of his mother, he would nevertheless have been one of the heirs. However, "There was a legal tradition that stipulated that a son of a slave woman could forego his inheritance claim in exchange for freedom,"[6] and that was exactly the option that Sarah determined to force upon Hagar and Ishmael.

Virtually to the threshold of full manhood, Ishmael had been brought up as the "heir apparent," and schooled in all the affairs of administration to which his position entitled him, and one can feel total sympathy for him and the attitude that he could not have failed to have, as he saw the feeble infant Isaac being celebrated with a great feast on the occasion of his weaning. Sarah's determined action is the only thing that could have prevented open warfare between the two half-brothers at some later time. We are not sympathetic to the scornful manner with which some commentators criticize and deplore Sarah's unkind and jealous actions. One glimpse of the mocking, sneering face of Ishmael as he belittled and made light of Isaac was all that was required to trigger the sudden and dramatic action of Sarah, but she knew what she was doing.

Poor Abraham, however, would have welched out of the task that confronted him, had there been any honorable way to do so, because of his love of Ishmael. However, God spoke to him and left him no alternative, except that of granting Sarah's wishes.