Genèse 21:16

16 Et elle s'en alla, et s'assit vis-à-vis, environ à la distance d'une portée d'arc; car elle dit: Que je ne voie pas mourir l'enfant. Et elle s'assit vis-à-vis, éleva la voix, et pleura.

Genèse 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.)

Genèse 21:16 In-Context

14 Et Abraham se leva de bon matin, prit du pain et une outre d'eau, et les donna à Agar; il les mit sur son épaule; il lui donna aussi l'enfant et la renvoya. Et elle s'en alla et erra dans le désert de Béer-Shéba.

15 Quand l'eau de l'outre fut épuisée, elle laissa l'enfant sous un des arbrisseaux.

16 Et elle s'en alla, et s'assit vis-à-vis, environ à la distance d'une portée d'arc; car elle dit: Que je ne voie pas mourir l'enfant. Et elle s'assit vis-à-vis, éleva la voix, et pleura.

17 Et Dieu entendit la voix du jeune garçon, et l'ange de Dieu appela des cieux Agar, et lui dit: Qu'as-tu, Agar? Ne crains point, car Dieu a entendu la voix du jeune garçon, là où il est.

18 Lève-toi, prends le jeune garçon, et tiens-le par la main; car je ferai de lui une grande nation.