Genesis 21:18

Contemporary English Version

Help him up and hold his hand, because I will make him the father of a great nation."

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
Get up, lift up the boy, and hold him in your hand. For I will make him a great nation."

King James Version
Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand; for I will make him a great nation.

Lexham English Bible
Get up, take up the boy and take him with your hand, for I will make him a great nation."

New Century Version
Help him up and take him by the hand. I will make his descendants into a great nation."

New English Translation
Get up! Help the boy up and hold him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation."

Amplified Bible
"Get up, help the boy up, and hold him by the hand, for I will make him a great nation."

New American Standard Bible
"Get up, lift up the boy, and hold him by the hand, for I will make a great nation of him."

Geneva Bible (1587)
Arise, take vp the childe, and holde him in thine hand: for I will make of him a great people.

Legacy Standard Bible
Arise, lift up the boy, and hold him by the hand, for I will make a great nation of him."

Complete Jewish Bible
Get up, lift the boy up, and hold him tightly in your hand, because I am going to make him a great nation."

Darby Translation
Arise, take the lad, and hold him in thy hand; for I will make of him a great nation.

Easy-to-Read Version
Go help the boy. Hold his hand and lead him. I will make him the father of many people."

English Standard Version
Up! Lift up the boy, and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make him into a great nation."

George Lamsa Translation
Arise, take up the boy, and hold him fast in your arms; for I will make him a great nation.

Good News Translation
Get up, go and pick him up, and comfort him. I will make a great nation out of his descendants."

Christian Standard Bible®
Get up, help the boy up, and grasp his hand, for I will make him a great nation.”

Literal Translation
Rise up, lift up the boy and make your hand strong on him, for I will make of him a great nation.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Aryse and take the childe, and holde him by the hande, for I wyll make a greate people of him.

American Standard Version
Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thy hand; for I will make him a great nation.

Bible in Basic English
Come, take your child in your arms, for I will make of him a great nation.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Aryse and lyft vp the lad, and take him in thyne hande, for I wyll make of hym a great people.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him fast by thy hand; for I will make him a great nation.'

King James Version (1611)
Arise, lift vp the lad, and hold him in thine hand: for I will make him a great nation.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Rise up, and take the child, and hold him in thine hand, for I will make him a great nation.

English Revised Version
Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand; for I will make him a great nation.

Berean Standard Bible
Arise, lift up the boy and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation."

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Rise thou, and take the child, and holde his hoond; for Y schal make hym in to a greet folc.

Young's Literal Translation
rise, lift up the youth, and lay hold on him with thy hand, for for a great nation I set him.'

Webster's Bible Translation
Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thy hand: for I will make him a great nation.

World English Bible
Get up, lift up the boy, and hold him in your hand. For I will make him a great nation."

New King James Version
Arise, lift up the lad and hold him with your hand, for I will make him a great nation."

New Living Translation
Go to him and comfort him, for I will make a great nation from his descendants."

New Life Bible
Get up. Lift up the boy and hold him by the hand. For I will make a great nation of him."

New Revised Standard
Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him."

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Arise lift up the boy, and hold him up with thy hand, - for, a great nation, will I make him.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Arise, take up the boy, and hold him by the hand, for I will make him a great nation.

Revised Standard Version
Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him fast with your hand; for I will make him a great nation."

Update Bible Version
Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in your hand. For I will make him a great nation.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him by the hand, for I will make a great nation of him."

Contextual Overview

¹⁴ Early the next morning Abraham gave Hagar an animal skin full of water and some bread. Then he put the boy on her shoulder and sent them away. They wandered around in the desert near Beersheba, ¹⁵ and after they had run out of water, Hagar put her son under a bush. ¹⁶ Then she sat down a long way off, because she could not bear to watch him die. And she cried bitterly. ¹⁷ When God heard the boy crying, the angel of God called out to Hagar from heaven and said, "Hagar, why are you worried? Don't be afraid. I have heard your son crying. ¹⁸ Help him up and hold his hand, because I will make him the father of a great nation." ¹⁹ Then God let her see a well. So she went to the well and filled the skin with water, then gave some to her son. ²⁰God blessed Ishmael, and as the boy grew older, he became an expert with his bow and arrows. He lived in the Paran Desert, and his mother chose an Egyptian woman for him to marry.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

I will: Genesis 21:13, Genesis 16:10, Genesis 17:20, Genesis 25:12-18, 1 Chronicles 1:29-31

Cross-References

Genesis 16:10
I will give you a son, who will be called Ishmael, because I have heard your cry for help. And later I will give you so many descendants that no one will be able to count them all.

Genesis 17:20
I have heard what you asked me to do for Ishmael, and so I will also bless him with many descendants. He will be the father of twelve princes, and I will make his family a great nation.

Genesis 21:12
But God said, "Abraham, don't worry about your slave woman and the boy. Just do what Sarah tells you. Isaac will inherit your family name,

Genesis 21:13
but the son of the slave woman is also your son, and I will make his descendants into a great nation."

Genesis 21:18
Help him up and hold his hand, because I will make him the father of a great nation."

Genesis 21:29
and Abimelech asked, "Why have you done this?"

Genesis 21:31
So they called the place Beersheba, because they made a treaty there.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Arise, lift up the lad,.... She had set herself down at some distance, and now she is bid to rise up and go to the place where she had left her son, and raise aim up from the ground, on which he lay along:

and hold him in thine hand: or take hold on him with thine hand, and hold him up with it, he being so weak that he could not sit up without being supported:

for I will make him a great nation: which is a renewal of a promise before made both to her and to Abraham, Genesis 16:10; and by this Hagar is assured that he would recover and live, and become a man and the father of children, who in time would become a great nation;

Genesis 16:10- :,

Genesis 16:10- :,

Genesis 16:10- :, this shows that the Angel of God here speaking is God himself, or a divine Person, since none but he could make him a great nation.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

- The Birth of Isaac

7. מלל mı̂lēl “speak,” an ancient and therefore solemn and poetical word.

14. חמת chêmet “bottle,” akin to חמה chāmâh, “surround, enclose,” and הוּם chûm “black. באר שׁבע b^eêr-sheba‛, Beer-sheba‘, “well of seven.”

22. פיכל pı̂ykol, Pikhol, “mouth or spokesman of all.”

23. נין nı̂yn “offspring, kin;” related: “sprout, flourish.” נכד neked “progeny,” perhaps “acquaintance,” cognate with נגד ngd, “be before” (the eyes) and נקד nqd, “mark.”

33. אשׁל 'êshel “grove;” ἄρουρα aroura, Septuagint.; אילבה 'ı̂ylābâh, “a tree,” Onkelos.

This chapter records the birth of Isaac with other concomitant circumstances. This is the beginning of the fulfillment of the second part of the covenant with Abraham - that concerning the seed. This precedes, we observe, his possession of even a foot-breadth of the soil, and is long antecedent to the entrance of his descendants as conquerors into the land of promise.

Genesis 21:1-8

Isaac is born according to promise, and grows to be weaned. “The Lord had visited Sarah.” It is possible that this event may have occurred before the patriarchal pair arrived in Gerar. To visit, is to draw near to a person for the purpose of either chastising or conferring a favor. The Lord had been faithful to his gracious promise to Sarah. “He did as he had spoken.” The object of the visit was accomplished. In due time she bears a son, whom Abraham, in accordance with the divine command, calls Isaac, and circumcises on the eighth day. Abraham was now a hundred years old, and therefore Isaac was born thirty years after the call. Sarah expressed her grateful wonder in two somewhat poetic strains. The first, consisting of two sentences, turns on the word laugh. This is no longer the laugh of delight mingled with doubt, but that of wonder and joy at the power of the Lord overcoming the impotence of the aged mother. The second strain of three sentences turns upon the object of this admiring joy. The event that nobody ever expected to hear announced to Abraham, has nevertheless taken place; “for I have borne him a son in his old age.” The time of weaning, the second step of the child to individual existence, at length arrives, and the household of Abraham make merry, as was wont, on the festive occasion. The infant was usually weaned in the second or third year 1 Samuel 1:22-24; 2 Chronicles 31:16. The child seems to have remained for the first five years under the special care of the mother Leviticus 27:6. The son then came under the management of the father.

Genesis 21:9-21

The dismissal of Hagar and Ishmael. “The son of Hagar ... laughing.” The birth of Isaac has made a great change in the position of Ishmael, now at the age of at least fifteen years. He was not now, as formerly, the chief object of attention, and some bitterness of feeling may have arisen on this account. His laugh was therefore the laugh of derision. Rightly was the child of promise named Isaac, the one at whom all laugh with various feelings of incredulity, wonder, gladness, and scorn. Sarah cannot brook the insolence of Ishmael, and demands his dismissal. This was painful to Abraham. Nevertheless, God enjoins it as reasonable, on the ground that in Isaac was his seed to be called. This means not only that Isaac was to be called his seed, but in Isaac as the progenitor was included the seed of Abraham in the highest and utmost sense of the phrase. From him the holy seed was to spring that was to be the agent in eventually bringing the whole race again under the covenant of Noah, in that higher form which it assumes in the New Testament. Abraham is comforted in this separation with a renewal of the promise concerning Ishmael Genesis 17:20.

He proceeds with all singleness of heart and denial of self to dismiss the mother and the son. This separation from the family of Abraham was, no doubt, distressing to the feelings of the parties concerned. But it involved no material hardship to those who departed, and conferred certain real advantages. Hagar obtained her freedom. Ishmael, though called a lad, was at an age when it is not unusual in the East to marry and provide for oneself. And their departure did not imply their exclusion from the privileges of communion with God, as they might still be under the covenant with Abraham, since Ishmael had been circumcised, and, at all events, were under the broader covenant of Noah. It was only their own voluntary rejection of God and his mercy, whether before or after their departure, that could cut them off from the promise of eternal life. It seems likely that Hagar and Ishmael had so behaved as to deserve their dismissal from the sacred home. “A bottle of water.”

This was probably a kid-skin bottle, as Hagar could not have carried a goat-skin. Its contents were precious in the wilderness, but soon exhausted. “And the lad.” He took the lad and gave him to Hagar. The bread and water-skin were on her shoulder; the lad she held by the hand. “In the wilderness of Beer-sheba.” It is possible that the departure of Hagar occurred after the league with Abimelek and the naming of Beer-sheba, though coming in here naturally as the sequel of the birth and weaning of Isaac. The wilderness in Scripture is simply the land not profitable for cultivation, though fit for pasture to a greater or less extent. The wilderness of Beer-sheba is that part of the wilderness which was adjacent to Beer-sheba, where probably at this time Abraham was residing. “Laid the lad.” Ishmael was now, no doubt, thoroughly humbled as well as wearied, and therefore passive under his mother’s guidance. She led him to a sheltering bush, and caused him to lie down in its shade, resigning herself to despair. The artless description here is deeply affecting.

Genesis 21:17-21

The fortunes of Ishmael. God cares for the wanderers. He hears the voice of the lad, whose sufferings from thirst are greater than those of the mother. An angel is sent, who addresses Hagar in the simple words of encouragement and direction. “Hold thy hand upon him.” Lay thy hand firmly upon him. The former promise Genesis 16:10 is renewed to her. God also opened her eyes that she saw a well of water, from which the bottle is replenished, and she and the lad are recruited for their further journey. It is unnecessary to determine how far this opening of the eyes was miraculous. It may refer to the cheering of her mind and the sharpening of her attention. In Scripture the natural and supernatural are not always set over against each other as with us. All events are alike ascribed to an ever-watchful Providence, whether they flow from the ordinary laws of nature or some higher law of the divine will. “God was with the lad.” Ishmael may have been cured of his childish spleen. It is possible also his father did not forget him, but sent him a stock of cattle with which to begin the pastoral life on his account. “He became an archer.” He grew an archer, or multiplied into a tribe of archers. Paran Genesis 14:6 lay south of Palestine, and therefore on the way to Egypt, out of which his mother took him a wife. The Ishmaelites, therefore, both root and branch, were descended on the mother’s side from the Egyptians.

Genesis 21:22-34

According to the common law of Hebrew narrative, this event took place before some of the circumstances recorded in the previous passage; probably not long after the birth of Isaac. Abimelek, accompanied by Phikol, his commander-in-chief, proposes to form a league with Abraham. The reason assigned for this is that God was with him in all that he did. Various circumstances concurred to produce this conviction in Abimelek. The never-to-be-forgotten appearance of God to himself in a dream interposing on behalf of Abraham, the birth of Isaac, and the consequent certainty of his having an heir, and the growing retinue and affluence of one who, some ten years before, could lead out a trained band of three hundred and eighteen men-at-arms, were amply sufficient to prove that God was the source of his strength. Such a man is formidable as a foe, but serviceable as an ally. It is the part of sound policy, therefore, to approach him and endeavor to prevail upon him to swear by God not to deal falsely with him or his. “Kin and kith.” We have adopted these words to represent the conversational alliterative phrase of the original. They correspond tolerably well with the σπέρμα sperma and ὄνομα onoma, “seed” and “name,” of the Septuagint. Abraham frankly consents to this oath. This is evidently a personal covenant, referring to existing circumstances. A similar confederacy had been already formed with Aner, Eshkol, and Mamre. Abraham was disposed to such alliances, as they contributed to peaceful neighborhood. He was not in a condition to make a national covenant, though it is a fact that the Philistines were scarcely ever wholly subjugated by his descendants.

Genesis 21:25-26

Abraham takes occasion to remonstrate with Abimelek about a well which his people had seized. Wells were extremely valuable in Palestine, on account of the long absence of rain between the latter or vernal rain ending in March, and the early or autumnal rain beginning in November. The digging of a well was therefore a matter of the greatest moment, and often gave a certain title to the adjacent fields. Hence, the many disputes about wells, as the neighboring Emirs or chieftains were jealous of rights so acquired, and often sought to enter by the strong hand on the labors of patient industry. Hence, Abraham lays more stress on a public attestation that he has dug, and is therefore the owner of this well, than on all the rest of the treaty. Seven is the number of sanctity, and therefore of obligation. This number is accordingly figured in some part of the form of confederation; in the present case, in the seven ewe-lambs which Abraham tenders, and Abimelek, in token of consent, accepts at his hand. The name of the well is remarkable as an instance of the various meanings attached to nearly the same sound. Even in Hebrew it means the well of seven, or the well of the oath, as the roots of seven, and of the verb meaning to swear, have the same radical letters. Bir es-Seba means “the well of seven or of the lion.”

Genesis 21:32-34

Returned unto the land of the Philistines. - Beer-sheba was on the borders of the land of the Philistines. Going therefore to Gerar, they returned into that land. In the transactions with Hagar and with Abimelek, the name God is employed, because the relation of the Supreme Being with these parties is more general or less intimate than with the heir of promise. The same name, however, is used in reference to Abraham and Sarah, who stand in a twofold relation to him as the Eternal Potentate, and the Author of being and blessing. Hence, the chapter begins and ends with Yahweh, the proper name of God in communion with man. “Eshel is a field under tillage” in the Septuagint, and a tree in Onkelos. It is therefore well translated a grove in the King James Version, though it is rendered “the tamarisk” by many. The planting of a grove implies that Abraham now felt he had a resting-place in the land, in consequence of his treaty with Abimelek. He calls upon the name of the Lord with the significant surname of the God of perpetuity, the eternal, unchangeable God. This marks him as the “sure and able” performer of his promise, as the everlasting vindicator of the faith of treaties, and as the infallible source of the believer’s rest and peace. Accordingly, Abraham sojourned in the land of the Philistines many days.