“Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave them to Hagar, he placed them her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away. She went and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba” (Genesis 21:14). “Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave them to Hagar” – the people of the household of our patriarch Abraham were generous, as it is stated: “Abraham rose early […he placed them on her shoulder].”34The Midrash interprets “he placed on her shoulder” to mean that besides the bread and water, Abraham gave her other gifts as well.
“And gave it to Hagar, [he placed them on her shoulder]” – as slaves typically would fill jugs of water on their shoulders.35Abraham wanted to demonstrate to people that Hagar was only a maidservant, not his full wife, and that Yishmael was not his heir. That is why he placed the water on her shoulder, in the manner of servants. “On her shoulder and the child” – he was twenty-seven years old36The Midrash understands that the feast made in honor of Isaac was for his Bar Mitzva, and Yishmael was fourteen years older than Isaac. and yet you say: “On her shoulder”?
It teaches that Sarah introduced an evil eye into him and he was afflicted with fever and pain [and could not walk on his own]. Know that it is so, as it is written: “The water in the skin was finished” (Genesis 21:15), as a sick person typically drinks a lot and frequently. “The water in the bottle was finished, and she cast the child beneath one of the bushes” (Genesis 21:15). “She cast the child beneath one of the bushes” – Rabbi Meir said: [The bush was a broom tree,] as it is the nature of broom trees to grow in the wilderness.
Rabbi Ami said: “Beneath one of the bushes [hasiḥim]” – [this word is used] because there the ministering angels conversed [hesiḥu] with her. “She went and sat herself opposite him, at a distance of about a bowshot, for she said: I will not see the death of the child. She sat opposite him, raised her voice, and wept” (Genesis 21:16). “She went and sat herself opposite him” – here it is stated: “She…sat herself opposite [mineged] him,” and elsewhere it says: “Opposite it [mineged], around the Tent of Meeting” (Numbers 2:2).
“At a distance” – here it says: “At a distance of about a bowshot,” and elsewhere it says: “However, there shall be a distance of a measure of two thousand cubits between you” (Joshua 3:4). We derive neged from neged and raḥok from raḥok.37And we thus derive that the distance in all these instances is two thousand cubits. Rabbi Yitzḥak said: “About a bowshot [kintaḥavei keshet]” – two bowshots,38Kimtaḥavei is plural. which is one mil.
Rabbi Berekhya said: [She protested her fate] like one who speaks impertinently [kemataḥat] toward the One on High. She said to Him: ‘Yesterday you said to me: “I will multiply your descendants…” (Genesis 16:10); now he is dying of thirst.’