Genesis 21:15 Commentary and Bible Study

They wander in the wilderness, so bitter and angry. These were dangerous parts and they should have stuck to the paths, but she just wandered. They did not need to, for she had had similar experiences before. The general direction they have gone in is Egypt where Hagar was from. Ishmael suffered dehydration before Hagar did. ‘The water was spent in the bottle and she cast the child under one of the shrubs.’ We have to question the translation here: ‘she cast the child’. This might paint the picture in our minds of a young child being carried by his mother, who now threw him under a bush, but Ishmael is 16, 17, or 18 years old. She had perhaps been supporting him, as they stumbled on, but now the heart had gone out of him, and she could see no solution to their problem, so she let him sink to the ground under the only minimal shade she could find, a leafy shrub. She was in despair of both of their lives, but had more vigour herself. What was the matter with Ishmael? He is in a state of collapse and he is dehydrated and cannot take another step, and she thinks he is going to die. He was in a state of collapse. But that can happen. When you are fifteen or sixteen or seventeen, you can be two or three times stronger than your mum and have only a quarter of her stamina. The water was spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under s shrub. The same word is used of Rebecca getting down from a camel, so we can visualise her placing the exhausted 17-year-old under one of the shrubs. ‘Cast’ is a little unfortunate, perhaps, a little strong. She went and sat her down over against him, where she could still see him a good way off a bowshot. She leaves the child who she loves, but whom she thinks she can do nothing more to help, and she goes some distance away, not wanting to see or hear him die. And she weeps bitterly. Did she pray? She doesn't appear to have prayed until this moment, and she didn't necessarily pray even now. She is still full of self-pity. Now in her most serious predicament her dear son, she thinks, is dying, and so she is going to pray. It required all this to bring Hagar to pray.