Genesis 16:11 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Genesis 16:11
And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.
a messenger · noun, common masculine singular construct
LORD
יְהוָ֔הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
said
וַיֹּ֤אמֶרvai.Yo.mer
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Behold
הִנָּ֥ךְhi.Nakh
H2009
lo! · interjection + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
child
הָרָ֖הha.Rah
H2030
pregnant · adjective, feminine singular absolute
bear
וְיֹלַ֣דְתְּve.yo.Ladt
H3205
to bear young · conjunction + verb, qal active participle, feminine singular absolute
son
בֵּ֑ןBen
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
call
וְקָרָ֤אתve.ka.Rat
H7121
to call out to (i.e. properly · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 2nd person feminine singular
name
שְׁמוֹ֙she.Mo
H8034
an appellation · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
Ishmael
יִשְׁמָעֵ֔אלyish.ma.'El
H3458
Jishmael · proper noun, a man's name
LORD
יְהוָ֖הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
heard
שָׁמַ֥עsha.Ma'
H8085
to hear intelligently (often with implication of attent… · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
affliction
עָנְיֵֽךְ'a.ne.Yekh
H6040
depression · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Exodus 2:23-24 And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cr…
Exodus 3:7 And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmaster…
Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Genesis 17:19 And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for…
Genesis 41:51-52 And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: For God, said he, hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father’s house.
1 Samuel 1:20 Wherefore it came to pass, when the time was come about after Hannah had conceived, that she bare a son, and called his name Samuel, saying,…
Exodus 3:9 Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me: and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppres…
Job 38:41 Who provideth for the raven his food? when his young ones cry unto God, they wander for lack of meat.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Genesis 16:10-14
We may suppose that the angel having given Hagar that good counsel (Gen 16:9) to return to her mistress she immediately promised to do so, and was setting her face homeward; and then the angel went on to encourage her with an assurance of the mercy God had in store for her and her seed: for God will meet those with mercy that are returning to their duty. I said, I will confess, and thou forgavest, Psa 32:5. Here is,
I. A prediction concerning her posterity given her for her comfort in her present distress. Notice is taken of her condition: Behold, thou art with child; and therefore this is not a fit place for thee to be in. Note, It is a great comfort to women with child to think that they a…
Ishmael--Like other Hebrew names, this had a signification, and it is made up of two words--"God hears." The reason is explained.
Adam Clarke on Genesis 16:11
And shalt call his name Ishmael - ישמאעל Yishmael, from שמע shama, he heard, and אל El, God; for, says the Angel, The Lord Hath Heard thy affliction. Thus the name of the child must ever keep the mother in remembrance of God's merciful interposition in her behalf, and remind the child and the man that he was an object of God's gracious and providential goodness. Afflictions and distresses have a voice in the ears of God, even when prayer is restrained; but how much more powerfully do they speak when endured in meekness of spirit, with confidence in and supplication to the Lord!
John Gill on Genesis 16:11
And the angel of the Lord said unto her,.... Continued his discourse with her, informing her she should have a son, and what his name should be, and what his character, and the place of his habitation:
behold, thou art with child; this she knew, and it is said, not for her information, as to this respect, but to lead on to something else he had to acquaint her with, she did not know. Jarchi indeed would have the sense to be, "thou shall conceive" or "be with child", as was said to Manoah's wife, Judges 13:5; for it is a fancy of his, that Hagar had miscarried, and he, supposes the angel to promise her, that if she would return, or when she should return, she should conceive again; but this…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 11) And she called his name Ishmael; for God has heard my affliction. Ishmael means, God hears.
Behold, he said, you have conceived and will bear a son, and you shall call his name Ishmael. Ishmael means God hears, and the reason for the name is explained when it is immediately added: because the Lord has heard your affliction. It is to be noted, however, that he was the first to receive a name from the Lord before he was born, and Isaac the second, clearly for a certain mystery, because both the Old Testament, which is signified in Ishmael, and the New, which is in Isaac, were heirs foreknown in divine election before the ages.
At that time, giving birth to children was regarded as a matter of great importance in view of the multiplication of human beings, as we have explained—this, moreover, at a time when virginity and the teaching on virtue did not yet have much credibility. This is why even prayers were said for conception and they counted such a thing as giving birth among the blessings. So much for the literal explanation. As for the spiritual sense, it could be this: One who has begun to be educated according to God and who is at the introductory stage is like one in a gestation period. The Master's word, however, makes him the promise that he will give birth, for masters who teach are often perspicacious when they see the efforts of their disciples and they acknowledge too their natural gifts. That the fruit of the womb is uncertain one can learn from a Gospel saying, when the Savior remarks, "Alas for those who are with child and for those who give suck in those days!" Such situations in fact are precarious when a trial comes along. This is why, wishing to wean those who are in this situation, the Word says, "Those who are weaned from the milk, those taken from the breast, affliction upon affliction, hope upon hope," for, as people who are henceforth on a solid diet, they receive affliction upon affliction. But there are imperfect people of whom Paul writes, "I fed you with milk, not solid food; for you were not ready for it; and even yet you are not ready."
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Abraham — Father of a multitude, son of Terah, named (Gen. 11:27) before his older brothers Nahor and Haran, because he was the heir of the promises. Till the age of seventy, Abram sojourned among his kindred…
Angel — A word signifying, both in the Hebrew and Greek, a “messenger,” and hence employed to denote any agent God sends forth to execute his purposes. It is used of an ordinary messenger (Job 1:14: 1 Sam.…
Beer-lahai-roi — I.e., “the well of him that liveth and seeth me,” or, as some render it, “the well of the vision of life”, the well where the Lord met with Hagar (Gen. 16:7-14). Isaac dwelt beside this well (24:62;…
Concubine — In the Bible denotes a female conjugally united to a man, but in a relation inferior to that of a wife. Among the early Jews, from various causes, the difference between a wife and a concubine was…
Communion · .Hagar — .Hagar
Ishmael · 1. — 1.
Lahai-Roi · (A well near Ka — (A well near Ka
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
And shalt bear a son. The angel explains what he had briefly said respecting her seed; namely, that it should not be capable of being numbered on account of its multitude; and he commences with Ishmael, who was to be its head and origin. Although we shall afterwards see that he was a reprobate, yet an honorable name is granted to him, to mark the temporal benefit of which Ishmael became a partakers as being a son of Abram. For I thus explain the passage, God intended that a monument of the paternal kindness, with which he embraced the whole house of Abram, should endure to posterity. For although the covenant of eternal life did not belong to Ishmael; yet, that he might not be entirely witho…
Hagar no doubt intended to escape to Egypt by a road used from time immemorial, that ran from Hebron past Beersheba, "by the way of Shur." - Shur, the present Jifar, is the name given to the north-western portion of the desert of Arabia (cf. Exo 15:22). There the angel of the Lord found her by a well, and directed her to return to her mistress, and submit to her; at the same time he promised her the birth of a son, and an innumerable multiplication of her descendants. As the fruit of her womb was the seed of Abram, she was to return to his house and there bear him a son, who, though not the seed promised by God, would be honoured for Abram's sake with the blessing of an innumerable posterity…
Names in Genesis often capture the message of a passage and aid the remembrance of the events and their significance in the history of the faith. The name Ishmael, which means “God hears,” commemorates that the Lord . . . heard Hagar’s cry of distress (see also study note on 16:14-15). This name would have greatly comforted Hagar; God listened to her prayers and acknowledged her complaint.
Rashi on Genesis 16:11
הנך הרה BEHOLD THOU WILT BE WITH CHILD — when you return you will conceive, just as the same phrase הנך הרה (Judges 13:7) spoken of the wife of Manoah (where it certainly appears to be thou wilt conceive in the future).
וְיֹלַדְתְּ בן AND THOU SHALT BEAR A SON — The word appears to be grammatically a combination of the perfect tense וְיָלַדְתְּ and the participle וְיֹלֶדֶת but it is similar in sense to וְיֹלֶדֶת (the participle); so, also, (Jeremiah 22:23) “O thou that dwellest יֹשַׁבְתְּ) in Lebanon, and art nestled (מְקֻנַּנְתְּ) in the cedars.”
וקראת שמו AND THOU SHALT CALL — This is a command, just as one would say to a man (וְקָרָאתָ), as (Genesis 17:19) “And thou shalt call his name…
