Genesis 21:15

15 When the water was gone, she put the boy in the shade of a bush.

Genesis 21:15 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 21:15

And the water was spent in the bottle
It was all drank up by them, being thirsty, having wandered about some time in a wilderness, where they could not replenish their bottle: the Jewish writers say F5 that when Hagar came into the wilderness, she began to wander after the idols of the house of Pharaoh her father, and immediately the water ceased from the bottle, or was drank up by Ishmael, being seized with a burning fever:

and she cast the child under one of the shrubs;
not from off her shoulder, but out of her hand or bosom; being faint through thirst, he was not able to walk, and she, being weary in dragging him along in her hand, perhaps sat down and held him in her lap, and laid him in her bosom; but, imagining he was near his end, she laid him under one of the shrubs in the wilderness, to screen him from the scorching sun, and there left him; the Greek version is, "under one of the fir trees", and so says Josephus F6: some Jewish writers F7 call them juniper trees; and some make this to be Ishmael's own act, and say, that, being fatigued with thirst, he went and threw himself under the nettles of the wilderness F8, see ( Job 30:7 ) .


FOOTNOTES:

F5 Pirke Eliezer, ut supra. (c. 30.) Targ. Jon. in loc.
F6 Antiqu. l. 1. c. 12. sect. 3.
F7 Bereshit, ut supra. (sect. 53. fol. 47. 4.)
F8 Pirke Eliezer, ut supra. (c. 30.)

Genesis 21:15 In-Context

13 But I will also make a nation of the descendants of Hagar’s son because he is your son, too.”
14 So Abraham got up early the next morning, prepared food and a container of water, and strapped them on Hagar’s shoulders. Then he sent her away with their son, and she wandered aimlessly in the wilderness of Beersheba.
15 When the water was gone, she put the boy in the shade of a bush.
16 Then she went and sat down by herself about a hundred yards away. “I don’t want to watch the boy die,” she said, as she burst into tears.
17 But God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, “Hagar, what’s wrong? Do not be afraid! God has heard the boy crying as he lies there.
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