Genesis Vol 3.pdf - College Press

116: 1-16 GENESIS 1 1 ‘1 , ‘ J
into or upon the glorious countenance of the Lord. Even
Moses in answer to his special rpquest could not venture
to take such a step (Exo. 33 :23$ .T So here very tersely
Hagar described what happened in her case. When ,Yahweh
appeared, she indeed conversed with Him; but only as He
departed did she ‘look after Him.’, So at least she appears
to have understood that no sinful .mortal can see God’s
countenance directly and live (see. .Ex0 3:20). So she
did not even attempt so rash a thing. ut to her God
now is a God ‘who sees me,’ i.e., ‘cares for, me.’ ” Hagar’s
experiences became known, and as a >result of what she
said, the well came to bear the name,-descriptive of her
experience. God is called “the Living One.” “Quite
properly so, because the fact that ,He has regard for the
needs of those who call upon Him, stamps Him as truly
a Living God and not a dead conception.” The Location
of the well: between Kadesh and Bered (v. 14). “Bered”
has never been located. “Kadesh” is the site commonly
designated Kadesh Barnea (cf. Josh. 1 J : 3 , Num. 1 3 : 3 -2 6,
Deut. 9:23, etc.), forty miles due south and a little to the
west of Beersheba. Skinner (ICCG, 228) : “In Arab tradition
the well of Hagar is plausibly enough identified with
‘Ain-Muweilih, a caravan station about 12 miles to the
W. of Kadesh. The well must have been a chief sanctuary
of the Ishmaelites; hence the later Jews, to whom Ishmael
was a name for all Arabs, identified it with the sacred
well Zemzem at Mecca,” Leupold (EG, J03): “So it
comes to pass that two vast nations, the Jews and the Ishmaelites,
are descended from Abraham. No further
spiritual advantage is attached to the advantage of numbers”
(cf. v. 10).
The Birth of Ishmael (vv. 15-1 6). Certainly there
can be no doubt that Hagar did as the Angel of Yahweh
told ,her. to do, and having returned to Abram’s household
ai,Hebrony she bore him a son in his 86th year. He gave
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