Genesis 21:18

18 Get up, help the boy up, and sustain him, for I will make him a great nation."

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 Then she went and sat down nearby, about a bowshot away, for she said, "I can't [bear to] watch the boy die!" So as she sat nearby, she wept loudly.

17 God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, "What's wrong, Hagar? Don't be afraid, for God has heard the voice of the boy from the place where he is.

18 Get up, help the boy up, and sustain him, for I will make him a great nation."

19 Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the waterskin and gave the boy a drink.

20 God was with the boy, and he grew; he settled in the wilderness and became an archer.