Genesis 21:16

16 and sat down about a hundred yards away. She said to herself, "I can't bear to see my child die." While she was sitting there, she began to cry.

Genesis 21:16 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 21:16

And she went and sat her down over against [him], a good way
off
Not being able to bear the sight of her child in his agonies, and, as she apprehended, ready to expire, she went from the place where she had laid him, and sat down under one of the shrubs or trees to shade herself, right over against that where her child was, though at some distance, which is next expressed:

as it were a bowshot;
about as far off from him as an arrow can be shot, or is usually shot out of a bow; according to the Jews this was about half a mile, for they say F9 two bowshots make a mile; here she sat waiting what would be the issue, whether life or death, which last she expected:

for she said, let me not see the death of the child;
she could not bear to hear his dying groans, and see him in his dying agonies:

and she sat over against [him], and lift up her voice and wept;
on account of her desolate and forlorn condition, being in a wilderness, where she could get no water, and her child, as she thought, dying with thirst: the Septuagint version is, "and the child cried and wept"; and certain it is, from ( Genesis 21:17 ) , that the child did lift up its voice and cry, but that is not expressed in the text; it is quite clear in the original that it was Hagar and not her son that is said to weep, since the verb is feminine.


FOOTNOTES:

F9 Bereshit Rabba, ut supra. (sect. 53. fol. 47. 4.)

Genesis 21:16 In-Context

14 Early the next morning Abraham gave Hagar some food and a leather bag full of water. He put the child on her back and sent her away. She left and wandered about in the wilderness of Beersheba.
15 When the water was all gone, she left the child under a bush
16 and sat down about a hundred yards away. She said to herself, "I can't bear to see my child die." While she was sitting there, she began to cry.
17 God heard the boy crying, and from heaven the angel of God spoke to Hagar, "What are you troubled about, Hagar? Don't be afraid. God has heard the boy crying.
18 Get up, go and pick him up, and comfort him. I will make a great nation out of his descendants."

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. she; [one ancient translation] the child.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.