Akiva Reads the Particle Et and Ishmael Grows Into an Archer

"And God was with the lad, and he grew" (Genesis 21:20). Rabbi Ishmael asked Rabbi Akiva: Because you served Nahum of Gimzo for twenty-two years, who would expound that the words "akh" and "rak" indicate limitations, and "et" and "gam" indicate inclusions, what does the word "et" written here mean? He said to him: Had it been written "And God was with the lad," the matter would have been difficult; but it says "with [et] the lad." Rabbi Ishmael said to him: "For it is not an empty thing" (Deuteronomy 32:47), and if it is empty, the emptiness is from you, for you do not know how to expound. Rather, "et the lad" includes him and his donkey drivers and his camel drivers and the members of his household. "And he became an archer" [rove keshet] (Genesis 21:20): he grew great, and his hardness [kashyuto] remained with him, great over all who shoot the bow. "And his mother took for him a wife from the land of Egypt" (Genesis 21:21). Rabbi Yitzchak said: Throw a stick into the air and it lands back on its root. So, because it is written, "And she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar" (Genesis 16:1), therefore "his mother took for him a wife from the land of Egypt."