And she called the name of the LORD that spake unto her, Thou God seest me: for she said, Have I also here looked after him that seeth me?
Called the name - common in ancient times to name places from circumstances; and the name given to this well was a grateful recognition of God's gracious appearance in the hour of her distress.
Thou God seest me - i:e., Thou art a God who permittest thyself to be seen.
Have I also here looked after him that seeth me? This appears to be similar to the scene described in Exodus 33:23, where it is promised to Moses, "thou shalt see my back parts, but my face shall not be seen." Hagar, however, meant a very different thing; and the correct view of her exclamation (taking the Hebrew verb to see in the sense it often bears, namely, to enjoy the light, to live) is, 'do I then here see (i:e., live) after the vision of God?' i:e., 'after having seen God?' (Gesenius). Delitzsch gives a different exposition of these words: 'Thou art a God of sight, whose all-seeing eye is directed toward the helpless and destitute, even in the farthest corner of the wilderness. Have I not even here, in this scene of wild and desolate solitude, been brought to recognize Him who looked after me. Wherefore the well was called 'The well of the living One who seeth me.'
But this commentary is not a sound one; because although the epithet "the living," applied to God in contradistinction from dead idols, occurs frequently in the later books of the Old Testament (Joshua 3:10; 2 Kings 19:4; Psalms 106:28), it is not used in any part of the Pentateuch; and, besides, it is at variance with those numerous passages in which a vision of God was supposed to be the precursor of a speedy death, and with which the literal translation of Hagar's words harmonizes her feelings (Genesis 32:31; Exodus 33:20; Judges 13:22).