The moment of turning is never where you expect it. In Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 21:16, the Aramaic paraphrase inserts a single gesture that changes the story's spiritual geography: Hagar cast away the idol. Only then does she weep.
The Hebrew says she sat a bowshot from her son and lifted her voice. The Targum of Pseudo-Jonathan adds what her hands did first. She drops the figure of pulchana nukhraya, the strange worship she had carried out of Egypt. The Aramaic is specific. She cannot cry to heaven while still holding another god.
The distance is measured — as the distance of an arrow from the bow — because she cannot bear to watch the child die. She sits opposite him, and the tears come. I am not able to see the death of the child.
This verse is the pivot. In the previous Targum, her prayer went unanswered. Here, she removes the obstacle. In the next verse, heaven will hear. The Aramaic has staged a miniature teshuvah.
The Maggidim drew the lesson without softening it: repentance begins with the hand, not the mouth. The takeaway: cast away what you have been holding. Only then will your crying carry.