EXPOSITION. Ver. 15.-And the water was spent in and wept. The verbs, being feminine, indi- (literally, from) the bottle,-so that the cate that it is Hagar's grief which is here wanderers became exhausted, and were in described, and that the rendering, " and the danger of fainting through thirst-and she child lifted up his voice and wept" (LXX. ), cast the child-a translation which certainly is incorrect ; although the next verse mny conveys an erroneous impression, first of suggest that Ishmael, like his mother, was Ishmael, who was not an infant, but a grown also dissolved in tears. lad (vide supra, ver. 14), and secondly of Ver. 17.-And God-Elohim; Hagar and Ishmael's mother, whom it represents as Ishmael having now been removed from the acting mth violence, if not with inhumanity; care and superintendence of the covenant whereas the sense probably is that, having, God to the guidance and providence of God as long as her rapidly diminishing strength the ruler of all nations (Keil)-heard the permitted, supported her faintin 17 son, she voice of the lad ;-praying (Inglis), or at lcnm:h 0 suddenly, through feehleness, re- weeping, ut supra-and the angel of God- leased his nerveless hand as he fell, nnd in Maleach Elohim; not Maleacl,, Jelwvah, as despair, finding herself nnable to give him in eh. xvi. 7-13, for the reason above specified further assistance, left him, as she believed, (Hengstenberg, Quarry)-called to Hagar out to die where he had flung himself in his of heaven -it may be inferred there was no intolerable angnish-under one of the shrubs. external ;ppearance or theopharieia, such as Ver. 16.-And she went, and sat her was vouchsafed to her when wandering in thG down-i'l? :::l~l:)1, the pronoun being added wilderness of Shur (eh. xvi. 7)-and said unto to the vcTb, ~s an ethical dative, to indicate her, What aileth thee (literally, What to that the action was of special importance to thee f) Hagar 1 fear not ;-so the word of Jc- her, meani.ug, "she, for hemelf, or for her hovah addressed .Abram (eh. xv. 1), Isaac (eh. part, sat down" (vule Ewald's 'Heb. Synt.,' xxvi. 4), Daniel (Dan. L 12), and John (Rev. § 315, a.; and Glass, 'Phil. Tract.,' I. iii. tr. i. 17)-for God hath heard the voice of the ii. c. 6 ; and cf. Gen. xii. I ; xxii 5)-over Iad-i. e. the voico (perhe.ps the mute cry_) of against him a good way o.lf'. The hiph. inf. the lad's misery, an~ in that ~lso the ~udi blo of P01, to go far away, to recede from any sob of Hagar's weepmg. It 1s not said that one, is here used adverbially, as in Josh. iii either Ishmael or his mother pre.yed to God 16 (Gesenius, Fiirst, Kalisch), though by in their distress. Hence the Divine inter- others it is understood as explaining the position on their behalf ncn quid a se action of the previous verbs, and as equiva- peterent, aed quid servo suo -:f.braha_e de lent to a gerund in do, or a participle, elon- Iamiiele pollicitus foret, respe:cit (Ca~vin)- r1aiulo se (Rosenmiiller), or_ simply" removi?g where he is-an ellipsis for from, or m, the to a distance" (Ewald ; vwe 'Heb. Synt., § place where he is; Ii: Tov To,rov ou ianv '.!BO a.). As it were a bowshot. Literally, (LXX.) ; e:c loco ubi est (Cnl".i~) ; .~ean~g as tlwse who draw the bow, i. e. as far off either "in his helpless cond1t10n (Keil), as archers are accus~omed to plac? the target or out in the desolate wilderness, as contrasted (Keil). The sense lll correctly given by the with the house of .Abraham (Calvin). LXX.: µaKpol:l,11, wa,i To(ov /30A,j11. For she Ver. 18.-Arise, lift up the la~, and hold ,i.id, Let me not see-i. e. look upon with him in thine hand. Literally, bind fast thy anguish (cf. Num. xi. 15)-the death of the hand to him, i. c. give him thy support now, child-~oii ..-a,iiov µov (LXX.). And she and take care of him till he reaches man- Ec.t over agaiDst l1irn, and lift up her voice, hood. Cf. God's promise to Isrncl (Tsa. xiii. OIi, XXI. 15-21.] THE BOOK OF GENESIS. 275
6). For I will mo.ke him (litero.lly, to) a made concerning him to Abraham and Ha~ar. great nation (vide ver. 13; nnd cf. eh. xvi. And he grew (1iterally, became r1reat, 1. e. 10; nii. 20). progressed towards manhood), and dwelt in Ver. 19.-And God opened her eyes. Not the wildemeaa (i. e. led a roving anrl un- necessarily by miraculous operation ; perhaps settled life), and became o.n archer. Liter- simply by providentially ipiiding hor search ally, an.4 he ioa., n~P. i1 17 ; i. e. dcrivin_; for water, after the ndmimstered consolation i1 17 from i1:;l;, to grow great or multiply, hn.d revived her spirit and roused her ener- gies. And she e&w a well of water. C'.Q either (1) wl1en he grew up, an archer, or i~~. as distinguished from i1J, o. pit or man using the bow (Gesenius, Keil); (2) growing an archer, or acquiring skill as a cistern, meant a fountain or spring of living bowman (Kalisch, Wordsworth); or (3) grow- water (cf. eh. xxiv. 11, 20; xxvi. 19, 20, 21). ing, or multiplying into, a tribe of archers It had not been previously observed by (lllurphy). With the first of these sub- Ha~ar, either because of her mental ngitation stantially agree the renderings ,mi ;y,vETo (dolore quasi creca, Rosenmiille1·), or because, To(oT1Jt (LXX.), and factus est juvenis as was customary, the mouth of the well was sar1,ittarius (Vulgatc). Others, connecting covered-and she went, and filled the bottle i1 1i with :l:;l;, in the sense of to cast arrows with water, and gave the lad drink-which (cf. eh. xlix. 23), read, (1) "and ho was a was certainly the first of the youth's neces- shooter of arrows from the bow" (Jarchi, sities, being needful to the preservation of Kimchi, Rosenmiiller), though in this case his life and the reviving of his spirits. Vere. 20, 21.-And God was with the lad. n~~ would have to be rend for ntfR (Fiirst); Not simply in the ordinary sense in which (2) a mBrksman, archer, i'.. e. a marksman he is with all men (Ps. cxxxh:. 3-9; .Acts skilled in using the bow (Ewalcl, vide 'Heb. XYii. 27, 28) ; not, certainly, in the spiritual Synt.,' § 287). Baumgarten translates, a hero sense in which ho had promised to be with (or great one), an archer. And he dwelt in Isaac (eh. xvii. 21), and in which he is with the wilderness of Po.ran :-the desert of El- believers (eh. x.xvi. 24 ; Isa. xii. 10 ; Matt. Ti.h, on the south of Canaan (cf. eh. xiv. 6)- xxviii. 20) ; but in the particular senso of and his mother took him a wife out of the exercising towards him a special providence, land of Egypt (cf. eh. L-.:iv. 4, 55 ; ExoJ. with a view to implementing the promise ui. 10).