Kejadian 21:15-26

21:15 When the water in the skin was gone, she shoved ¹  the child under one of the shrubs. 21:16 Then she went and sat down by herself across from him at quite a distance, about a bowshot ²  away; for she thought, ³  “I refuse to watch the child die.” ⁴  So she sat across from him and wept uncontrollably. ⁵ 

21:17 But God heard the boy’s voice. ⁶  The angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and asked her, “What is the matter, ⁷  Hagar? Don’t be afraid, for God has heard ⁸  the boy’s voice right where he is crying. 21:18 Get up! Help the boy up and hold him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.” 21:19 Then God enabled Hagar to see a well of water. ⁹  She went over and filled the skin with water, and then gave the boy a drink.

21:20 God was with the boy as he grew. He lived in the wilderness and became an archer. 21:21 He lived in the wilderness of Paran. ¹⁰  His mother found a wife for him from the land of Egypt. ¹¹ 

21:22 At that time Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, said to Abraham, “God is with you ¹²  in all that you do. 21:23 Now swear to me right here in God’s name ¹³  that you will not deceive me, my children, or my descendants. ¹⁴  Show me, and the land ¹⁵  where you are staying, ¹⁶  the same loyalty ¹⁷  that I have shown you.” ¹⁸ 

21:24 Abraham said, “I swear to do this.” ¹⁹  21:25 But Abraham lodged a complaint ²⁰  against Abimelech concerning a well ²¹  that Abimelech’s servants had seized. ²²  21:26 “I do not know who has done this thing,” Abimelech replied. “Moreover, ²³  you did not tell me. I did not hear about it until today.”

[21:15]  ¹ tn Heb “threw,” but the child, who was now thirteen years old, would not have been carried, let alone thrown under a bush. The exaggerated language suggests Ishmael is limp from dehydration and is being abandoned to die. See G. J. Wenham, Genesis (WBC), 2:85.

[21:16]  ² sn A bowshot would be a distance of about a hundred yards (ninety meters).

[21:16]  ³ tn Heb “said.”

[21:16]  ⁴ tn Heb “I will not look on the death of the child.” The cohortative verbal form (note the negative particle אַל,’al) here expresses her resolve to avoid the stated action.

[21:16]  ⁵ tn Heb “and she lifted up her voice and wept” (that is, she wept uncontrollably). The LXX reads “he” (referring to Ishmael) rather than “she” (referring to Hagar), but this is probably an attempt to harmonize this verse with the following one, which refers to the boy’s cries.

[21:17]  ⁶ sn God heard the boy’s voice. The text has not to this point indicated that Ishmael was crying out, either in pain or in prayer. But the text here makes it clear that God heard him. Ishmael is clearly central to the story. Both the mother and the Lord are focused on the child’s imminent death.

[21:17]  ⁷ tn Heb “What to you?”

[21:17]  ⁸ sn Here the verb heard picks up the main motif of the name Ishmael (“God hears”), introduced back in chap. 16.

[21:19]  ⁹ tn Heb “And God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water.” The referent (Hagar) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[21:21]  ¹⁰ sn The wilderness of Paran is an area in the east central region of the Sinai peninsula, northeast from the traditional site of Mt. Sinai and with the Arabah and the Gulf of Aqaba as its eastern border.

[21:21]  ¹¹ tn Heb “And his mother took for him a wife from the land of Egypt.”

[21:22]  ¹² sn God is with you. Abimelech and Phicol recognized that Abraham enjoyed special divine provision and protection.

[21:23]  ¹³ tn Heb “And now swear to me by God here.”

[21:23]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “my offspring and my descendants.”

[21:23]  ¹⁵ tn The word “land” refers by metonymy to the people in the land.

[21:23]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew verb means “to stay, to live, to sojourn” as a temporary resident without ownership rights.

[21:23]  ¹⁷ tn Or “kindness.”

[21:23]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “According to the loyalty which I have done with you, do with me and with the land in which you are staying.”

[21:24]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “I swear.” No object is specified in the Hebrew text, but the content of the oath requested by Abimelech is the implied object.

[21:25]  ²⁰ tn The Hebrew verb used here means “to argue; to dispute”; it can focus on the beginning of the dispute (as here), the dispute itself, or the resolution of a dispute (Isa 1:18). Apparently the complaint was lodged before the actual oath was taken.

[21:25]  ²¹ tn Heb “concerning the matter of the well of water.”

[21:25]  ²² tn The Hebrew verb used here means “to steal; to rob; to take violently.” The statement reflects Abraham’s perspective.

[21:26]  ²³ tn Heb “and also.”