Genesis 21:15

(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. In Hebrew, after what is written, 'I will not see the death of my child,' it is read that Hagar herself sat opposite the boy, and raised her voice, and wept, and God heard the voice of the child. For when the mother was weeping and waiting miserably for the death of her son, God heard the boy, of whom He had promised to Abraham, saying: 'But I will also make your slave woman's son into a great nation' (Gen. XVII, 20). Otherwise, the mother herself mourned not her own death, but that of her son. Therefore, God spared her, for whom there had been weeping. Finally, it is said in what follows: 'Rise up and take the boy, and hold his hand' (Gen. XVII, 18). From this it is clear that the one who is held is not a burden to his mother, but a companion. And when someone is held by the hand of a parent, their concerned affection is shown.

THE ANGEL'S WORDS TO HAGAR. — And the water failed out of the skin, and she cast the child under a fir tree. And she departed and sat down opposite him at a distance, as it were a bow-shot, for she said, Surely I cannot see the death of my child: and she sat opposite him, and the child cried aloud and wept. And God heard the voice of the child from the place where he was, and an angel of God called Hagar out of heaven, and said to her, What is it, Hagar? fear not, for God has heard the voice of the child from the place where he is. Rise up, and take the child, and hold him in your hand, for I will make him a great nation . The question is often asked how, when the child was more than fifteen years old, his mother threw him under a tree and left at a distance as a bow shot so as not to see him die. The text appears as if she had thrown down the child she was carrying, especially considering what follows: ‘the child began to mourn’. But it must be understood here that the child was thrown, not by the one who carried him, but, as is often the case, by his state of mind, thinking that he was going to die. For concerning these words of the Scripture: I am cast out from the sight of your eyes (Ps. 30:23), neither was any man has said this. On the other hand, in ordinary language there is the habit of saying something similar when one says that he is thrown by another with whom he was with, so that he does not see or remain with him. It must be understood, then, that the Scripture omitted to say that the mother separated herself from her son so that the child did not know where the mother had gone, and that she hid among the woods in the forest so as not to see her child die of thirst. What, then, is it strange that, even at his age, he would burst into tears when he had not seen his mother for so long and thought that he had been lost in the place where he remained alone? In relation to what the Scripture says: Take the child, he was not told to take it from the ground, as if he were lying there, but to join him and then give him the hand to accompany him, as he was, thing That usually do those who walk together of any age that they are. [