Genesis 17:18

So then Abraham said to God, “Look, I already have a son, Ishmael. I want you to be good to him, so that he will be that son you are talking about.”

Plain English Version

In The King James Version

And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee!

In Context

17Abraham got down on his knees again and put his face near the ground, and he laughed. He thought, “I am nearly 100 years old, and Sarah is nearly 90. We can’t have a baby. We are too old.”

19God said, “No, not Ishmael. Listen, your wife Sarah will have a baby boy. He will be your son, and you will call him Isaac.” (That name Isaac means laugh.) And God said, “He will be the son I’m talking about. I will keep this agreement going with him. It will be the same for him, and for all the people that will be born into his family later on. This agreement will go on for ever.

Read all of Genesis 17

Cross References

Genesis 4:14If you make me leave this land where I grow my food, and if you make me go away from you, then I will have to walk around everywhere, and I will not have a home. Then somebody will find me and finish me.”

Matthew Henry on Genesis 17:16-23

15 And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. 16 And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her. 17 Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is a hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear? 18 And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee!… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study Genesis 17:18