Bible Strands
Genesis 21:8
So the child grew and was weaned, and Abraham held a great feast on the day Isaac was weaned.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The narrator records the moment Isaac completes his nursing period, following Sarah’s declaration of bearing a son in Abraham’s old age. Abraham initiates the celebration without addressing another speaker.
The words — The Hebrew וַיִּגָּמֵל (va/yi.ga.mel) literally means “he was weaned,” marking the end of the nursing phase. The phrase מִשְׁתֶּה גָדוֹל (mish.teh ga.dol) translates to “a great feast,” indicating a formal celebratory meal.
The thread — The weaning milestone reappears in 1 Samuel 1:22, where Hannah vows to present her son to the Lord after the same developmental stage. The motif of a celebratory feast recurs in Genesis 19:3, where Lot prepares a meal for his visitors.
Why it lands — The passage documents a familial celebration that publicly acknowledges a promised birth. A reader must observe how the narrative immediately pivots from this milestone to the conflict described in Genesis 21:9.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And the child grew, and was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned.
Cross-references
- 1 Samuel 1:22 but Hannah did not go. “After the boy is weaned,” she said to her husband, “I will take him to appear before the LORD and to stay there permanently.”
- Hosea 1:8 After she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, Gomer conceived and gave birth to a son.
- Genesis 19:3 But Lot insisted so strongly that they followed him into his house. He prepared a feast for them and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.
- Genesis 26:30 So Isaac prepared a feast for them, and they ate and drank.
- Genesis 29:22 So Laban invited all the men of that place and prepared a feast.
- Genesis 40:20 On the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, he held a feast for all his officials, and in their presence he lifted up the heads of the chief cupbearer and the chief baker.
- 2 Samuel 3:20 When Abner and twenty of his men came to David at Hebron, David held a feast for them.
- 1 Kings 3:15 Then Solomon awoke, and indeed it had been a dream. So he returned to Jerusalem, stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. Then he held a feast for all his servants.
- Psalms 131:2 Surely I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with his mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.
- Judges 14:10 Then his father went to visit the woman, and Samson prepared a feast there, as was customary for the bridegroom.