Genesis 21:15
in Genesis 21When the water in the skin was gone, she left the boy under one of the bushes.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And the water in the bottle was spent, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs.
KJV
And the water was spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs.
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This verse in Genesis 21
Commentary
7 notes on this verseAnd she cast the child - ותשלך את הילד vattashlech eth haiyeled, and she sent the lad under one of the shrubs, viz., to screen him from the intensity of the heat. Here Ishmael appears to be utterly helpless, and this circumstance seems farther to confirm the opinion that he was now in a state of infancy; but the preceding observations do this supposition entirely away, and his present helplessness will be easily accounted for on this ground: 1. Young persons can bear much less fatigue than those who are arrived at mature age.
This site's exposition
Early in the morning, Abraham got up
on Genesis 21:14-16
Hagar wandered until the water in the skin was gone, left the boy under the bushes and sat about a bowshot away. She said she could not bear to watch the boy die. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read Ishmael as a lad of about seventeen.
This site's exposition
left the boy under one of the bushes
With the water gone, Hagar left the boy under the bushes, and Clarke reads the verb as sending him there for shade from the heat. Clarke adds that a boy tires sooner than a grown man. Jerome counts him thirteen when Isaac was born.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
(Verse 15, 16.) And she put the boy under a tree, and went and sat opposite him, as if shooting an arrow. She said, 'I will not see the death of my child.' And she sat opposite him. And immediately it happened: The boy cried out, and wept, and God heard the voice of the boy from the place where he was. And the Angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and so on, let no one move.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
), though God had told her, before he was born, that he should live to be a man, a great man. We are apt to forget former promises, when present providences seem to contradict them; for we live by sense.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
And the water was spent in the bottle,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
the water was spent, &c.--Ishmael sank exhausted from fatigue and thirst--his mother laid his head under one of the bushes to smell the damp while she herself, unable to witness his distress, sat down at a little distance in hopeless sorrow.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
This is to be understood in connection with the above: And he gave to Hagar [the bread and bottle of water]… and the child, for he gave her the child also to go with her wherever she will go.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 4 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
10 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַיִּכְל֥וּ | vaiyikhlu | and they were finished | H3615 → | 208 times |
| הַמַּ֖יִם | hamayim | the water<s> | H4325 → | 581 times |
| מִן־ | min- | from | H4480 → | 1188 times |
| הַחֵ֑מֶת | hachemet | the skin | H2573 → | 3 times |
| וַתַּשְׁלֵ֣ךְ | vatashlekh | and she threw | H7993 → | 125 times |
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| הַיֶּ֔לֶד | haiyeled | the boy | H3206 → | 89 times |
| תַּ֖חַת | tachat | under | H8478 → | 505 times |
| אַחַ֥ד | ʾachad | one of | H259 → | 971 times |
| הַשִּׂיחִֽם׃ | hasichim | the bushes | H7880 → |
וַיִּכְל֥וּand they were finished
vaiyikhluH3615 →208 times
הַמַּ֖יִםthe water<s>
hamayimH4325 →581 times
מִן־from
min-H4480 →1188 times
הַחֵ֑מֶתthe skin
hachemetH2573 →3 times
וַתַּשְׁלֵ֣ךְand she threw
vatashlekhH7993 →125 times
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
הַיֶּ֔לֶדthe boy
haiyeledH3206 →89 times
תַּ֖חַתunder
tachatH8478 →505 times
אַחַ֥דone of
ʾachadH259 →971 times
הַשִּׂיחִֽם׃the bushes
hasichimH7880 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Psalms 63:1O God, You are my God. Earnestly I seek You; my soul thirsts for You. My body yearns for You in a dry and weary land without water.
it leads to
- Psalms 143:6
I stretch out my hands to You; my soul thirsts for You like a parched land. Selah
- Psalms 84:2
My soul longs, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
- Psalms 42:1–2
As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul longs after You, O God.
- Matthew 6:33
But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.
- Psalms 91:2
I will say to the LORD, “You are my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”
- Psalms 143:6
Through
Jeremiah 14:3The nobles send their servants for water; they go to the cisterns, but find no water; their jars return empty. They are ashamed and humiliated; they cover their heads.
it leads to
- 2 Samuel 15:30
But David continued up the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went up. His head was covered, and he was walking barefoot. And all the people with him covered their heads and went up,…
- 2 Kings 18:31
Do not listen to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then every one of you will eat from his own vine…
- Jeremiah 2:13
“For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water, and they have dug their own cisterns—broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
- 2 Samuel 15:30
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies10
About Genesis
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Hebrew Questions on Genesis; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.