Genesis Vol 3.pdf - College Press

THE SON OF THE BONDWOMAN 16:l-16
dants” (Skinner,, ICCG, 287), Ishmael will be among
human families what the wild ass is among animals (cf,
Job 39:J-8, Jer. 2:24), “Ishmael descendants are the
desert Arabs who are as intractable and vagrant as the wild
ass” (JB, 3 3) (2) “His haiid shall be against every man,
aiid every ma/i’s hand against hiiii,” thus descriptive of
“the rude, turbulent, and plundering character of the
Arab? (Jamieson, CECG, 150) . This describes “most
truly the incessant state of feud, in which the Ishmaelites
live with one another ‘or with their neighbors” (Keil and
Delitzsch, (BCOTP, 220). (3) “Awd he shall dwell over
agaiiist all his bYefhreii” (“over against” means “to the
east,” cf. 2 li : 1 8). The geographical meaning is included
here, but much greater significance is to be attached to this
statement. Ishmael and his progeny shall live in defiance
or disregard of their own kinsmen (cf. Deut. 21:16, “to
the disregard of” the older son of the unloved wife).
This passage indicates also that “Ishmael would maintain
an independent standing before (in the presence of) all
the descendants of Abraham. History has confirmed this
promise. The Ishmaelites have continued to this day in
free and undiminished possession of the extensive peninsula
between the Euphrates, the Straits of Suez, and the Red
Sea, from which they have overspread both Northern
Africa and Southern Asia” (Keil-Delitzsch, ibid., p. 22 1).
VV. 13-14. Hitherto Hagar’s position had been grow-
ing increasingly difficult, but now she knew that Yahweh
cares, that He was looking after her, that He is “a God
who sees.” She aptly invents the name for Yahweh, El
Roi. “El Roi means ‘God of vision.’ Lakai Roi may
mean, the well ‘of the Living One who sees me’; to this
place Isaac was to come, 24:62, 2li:ll” (JB, 33). (To
Hagar, Yahweh was the “God who sees” in the sense of
being the “God who cares.” Leupold (EG, 506) : “No
mortal to whom God appeared ventured to look directly