Kejadian 16:11

16:11 Then the Lord’s angel said to her,

“You are now ¹  pregnant

and are about to give birth ²  to a son.

You are to name him Ishmael, ³ 

for the Lord has heard your painful groans. ⁴ 

Kejadian 21:17

21:17 But God heard the boy’s voice. ⁵  The angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and asked her, “What is the matter, ⁶  Hagar? Don’t be afraid, for God has heard ⁷  the boy’s voice right where he is crying.

Keluaran 2:23

The Call of the Deliverer

2:23 ⁸ During ⁹  that long period of time ¹⁰  the king of Egypt died, and the Israelites ¹¹  groaned because of the slave labor. They cried out, and their desperate cry ¹²  because of their slave labor went up to God.

[16:11]  ¹ tn The particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) focuses on her immediate situation: “Here you are pregnant.”

[16:11]  ² tn The active participle refers here to something that is about to happen.

[16:11]  ³ sn The name Ishmael consists of the imperfect or jussive form of the Hebrew verb with the theophoric element added as the subject. It means “God hears” or “may God hear.”

[16:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “affliction,” which must refer here to Hagar’s painful groans of anguish.

[16:11]  sn This clause gives the explanation of the name Ishmael, using a wordplay. Ishmael’s name will be a reminder that “God hears” Hagar’s painful cries.

[21:17]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Heb “What to you?”

[21:17]  ⁷ sn Here the verb heard picks up the main motif of the name Ishmael (“God hears”), introduced back in chap. 16.

[2:23]  ⁸ sn The next section of the book is often referred to as the “Call of Moses,” and that is certainly true. But it is much more than that. It is the divine preparation of the servant of God, a servant who already knew what his destiny was. In this section Moses is shown how his destiny will be accomplished. It will be accomplished because the divine presence will guarantee the power, and the promise of that presence comes with the important “I AM” revelation. The message that comes through in this, and other “I will be with you” passages, is that when the promise of God’s presence is correctly appropriated by faith, the servant of God can begin to build confidence for the task that lies ahead. It will no longer be, “Who am I that I should go?” but “I AM with you” that matters. The first little section, 2:23-25, serves as a transition and introduction, for it records the Lord’s response to Israel in her affliction. The second part is the revelation to Moses at the burning bush (3:1-10), which is one of the most significant theological sections in the Torah. Finally, the record of Moses’ response to the call with his objections (3:11-22), makes up the third part, and in a way, is a transition to the next section, where God supplies proof of his power.

[2:23]  ⁹ tn The verse begins with the temporal indicator “And it was” (cf. KJV, ASV “And it came to pass”). This has been left untranslated for stylistic reasons.

[2:23]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “in those many days.”

[2:23]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the sons of Israel.”

[2:23]  ¹² tn “They cried out” is from זָעַק (za’aq), and “desperate cry” is from שַׁוְעָה (shava’h).