Bible Strands
Genesis 21:15
When the water in the skin was gone, she left the boy under one of the bushes.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Hagar, having been sent away by Abraham into the Wilderness of Beersheba with her son, acts after the water in their provisioned skin is exhausted.
The words — The Hebrew terms וַיִּכְלוּ (va/yikh.lu) and וַתַּשְׁלֵךְ (va/tash.lekh) literally mean "they were finished" and "she threw," recording the depletion of the waterskin and Hagar's act of placing the boy beneath a bush.
The thread — This moment of desert thirst parallels the water failure at the Desert of Shur (Exodus 15:22), the royal armies' arduous desert march (2 Kings 3:9), and David’s declaration of thirst while isolated in the wilderness (Psalm 63:1).
Why it lands — The text records a mother's forced abandonment of her child due to resource depletion, demanding the reader confront the stark reality of survival limits before any subsequent divine intervention.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And the water was spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs.
Cross-references
- Exodus 15:22 Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the Desert of Shur. For three days they walked in the desert without finding water.
- 2 Kings 3:9 So the king of Israel, the king of Judah, and the king of Edom set out, and after they had traveled a roundabout route for seven days, they had no water for their army or for their animals.
- Psalms 63:1 A Psalm of David, when he was in the Wilderness of Judah. O 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.
- Jeremiah 14:3 The 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.
- Genesis 21:14 Early in the morning, Abraham got up, took bread and a skin of water, put them on Hagar’s shoulders, and sent her away with the boy. She left and wandered in the Wilderness of Beersheba.
- Exodus 17:1 Then the whole congregation of Israel left the Desert of Sin, moving from place to place as the LORD commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink.
- Isaiah 44:12 The blacksmith takes a tool and labors over the coals; he fashions an idol with hammers and forges it with his strong arms. Yet he grows hungry and loses his strength; he fails to drink water and grows faint.