Genesis 21:18

18 Aryse and lyfte vp the lad and take hym in thy hande for I will make off him a greate people.

Genesis 21:18 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 21:18

Arise, lift up the lad
She had set herself down at some distance, and now she is bid to rise up and go to the place where she had left her son, and raise aim up from the ground, on which he lay along:

and hold him in thine hand:
or take hold on him with thine hand, and hold him up with it, he being so weak that he could not sit up without being supported:

for I will make him a great nation:
which is a renewal of a promise before made both to her and to Abraham, ( Genesis 16:10 ) ( 17:20 ) ( 21:13 ) ; and by this Hagar is assured that he would recover and live, and become a man and the father of children, who in time would become a great nation; (See Gill on Genesis 16:10), (See Gill on Genesis 17:20), (See Gill on Genesis 21:13), this shows that the Angel of God here speaking is God himself, or a divine Person, since none but he could make him a great nation.

Genesis 21:18 In-Context

16 and went and satt her out of syghte a great waye as it were a bowshote off: For she sayde: I will not se the lad dye. And she satt doune out of syghte and lyfte vp hyr voyce and wepte.

17 And God herde the voyce of the childe. And the angell of God called Hagar out of heaven and sayde vnto her: What ayleth the Hagar? Feare not for God hath herde the voyce of the childe where he lyeth.

18 Aryse and lyfte vp the lad and take hym in thy hande for I will make off him a greate people.

19 And God opened hir eyes and she sawe a well of water. And she went and fylled the bottell with water and gaue the boye drynke.

20 And God was wyth the lad and he grewe and dweld in the wildernesse and became an archer.