Genesis 21:16, commentary and pictures

Hagar laid Ishmael under a shrub and sat down opposite him about a bowshot away because she could not bear to watch him die, and sitting there she lifted up her voice and wept aloud in grief and distress. The boy was exhausted and near death from thirst for lack of water. The scene belongs to God's providential dealings with Abraham's chosen family through whom the promised Seed would come, with Isaac as the miraculous child of promise through whom the Seed would come rather than through Ishmael. Hagar and Ishmael's birth through human planning rather than God's promise led to bondage and trouble, and they represent those who rely on their own works instead of God's promise, yet the account goes on to show they were freed from bondage and the angel of the Lord succored them rather than returning them to it. Even in their sending away, God compassionately remembered and cared for the lonely, distressed mother and her son in the wilderness and showed them mercy.

Setting and Plain Meaning

Hagar laid Ishmael beneath a shrub and withdrew to sit facing him a short distance off, about a bowshot away, because she could not endure to watch him die, and sitting there opposite him she raised her voice and wept aloud in grief and distress. The boy was exhausted and near death from thirst, perishing for lack of water.

The scene belongs to the account of Abraham sending Hagar and Ishmael away at Sarah's word, a separation that tested his faith and obedience. It falls on Hagar's journey with Ishmael after leaving Abraham's encampment, when she was on her way to another encampment meant to become her own but had evidently lost her way.

The verse calls Ishmael a child though by chronology and circumstances he was about eighteen or twenty years old. This shows that child is a relative term measured by the average length of life, which was then much greater than now, about one hundred and fifty years. By the same proportion a person a hundred years old could properly be called a child when people commonly lived more than nine hundred years. Persons of that age so called remain morally accountable, so their cases come into the judgment, and if unrepentant they come up in the second resurrection among the throng outside the holy city and suffer the second death when the curse of God falls just before the new heavens and new earth.

Doctrine and Application

The verse belongs to God's providential dealings with Abraham's family as the chosen family through whom the promised Seed would come. Within that providence Isaac was the miraculous child of promise, and he was the son through whom the promised Seed would come rather than Ishmael. Hagar and Ishmael's story began with a birth through human planning rather than God's promise, and that course led to bondage and trouble. In this Hagar and her child represent those who rely on their own works instead of God's promise. Yet after they were sent away they were freed from bondage, and the angel of the Lord succored them rather than returning them to it.

Their expulsion, with Hagar sitting at a distance from Ishmael and weeping because she feared seeing him die, broke Ishmael's claim to Abraham's heirship and inheritance. The distress in which she sat apart and wept over the child's expected death illustrates the great unhappiness caused by polygamy in Abraham's family. At the same time the scene shows Hagar alone in distress after being sent away, grieving because she feared her child would die, and sitting a short distance from him and weeping. In that wilderness condition God compassionately remembered and cared for the lonely mother and her thirsty son and showed them mercy.

Hagar wept in fear that her son would die for lack of water, yet a well was nearby and she did not see it. Her distress shows that worry does not solve the need. It also illustrates that worry can hide the help already available.