God Counts Hagar's Tears and Judges Ishmael by the Hour

Another interpretation of "as far as a bowshot" (Genesis 21:16): the distance of two bowshots is a mil. Rabbi Berechiah said: it means she was flinging words [matachat] against her Creator. She said: Yesterday You told me, "I will greatly multiply your offspring," and now he is dying of thirst! This is the meaning of what is written, "You have counted my wanderings; put my tears in Your bottle; are they not in Your record?" (Psalms 56:9). Like that woman with the bottle: "Are they not in Your record?" Just as it is written in Your book, "Be not deaf to my tears" (Psalms 39:13). To Hagar's tears You were not deaf; will You then be deaf to mine? And should you say it was because she was a convert that she was beloved, I too am one, as it says, "For I am a stranger with You, a sojourner like all my fathers" (Psalms 39:13). "And an angel of God called to Hagar" (Genesis 21:17): through the merit of Abraham. "Where he is" (Genesis 21:17): through his own merit. The prayer of the sick person for himself is better than the prayer of others on his behalf. The ministering angels sprang forward to accuse him. They said before Him: Master of the universe, a man whose descendants are destined to kill Your children with thirst, will You raise up a well for him? He said to them: What is he now, righteous or wicked? They said to Him: Righteous. He said to them: I judge a person only according to his present hour.