Genesis 21:13-15

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Genesis 21:13 tc The translation follows the Smr, LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate here in adding “great” (cf. 21:18); MT reads simply “a nation.”
2. Genesis 21:14 tn Heb “and Abraham rose up early in the morning and he took.”
3. Genesis 21:14 tn Heb “bread,” although the term can be used for food in general.
4. Genesis 21:14 tn Heb “He put upon her shoulder, and the boy [or perhaps, “and with the boy”], and he sent her away.” It is unclear how “and the boy” relates syntactically to what precedes. Perhaps the words should be rearranged and the text read, “and he put [them] on her shoulder and he gave to Hagar the boy.”
5. Genesis 21:14 tn Heb “she went and wandered.”
6. Genesis 21:14 tn Or “desert,” although for English readers this usually connotes a sandy desert like the Sahara rather than the arid wasteland of this region with its sparse vegetation.
7. Genesis 21:15 tn Heb “threw,” but the child, who was now thirteen years old, would not have been carried, let alone thrown under a bush. The exaggerated language suggests Ishmael is limp from dehydration and is being abandoned to die. See G. J. Wenham, Genesis (WBC), 2:85.