And the water was spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs.
The water, ... Ishmael sank exhausted from fatigue and thirst: his mother laid his head under one of the bushes-a dwarfish acacia, or a tamarisk-to smell the damp, while she herself, unable to witness his distress, sat down at a little distance in hopeless sorrow.
She cast, [Hebrew, tashleek (H7993)] - threw, or laid down with a sudden and violent motion [rendered in the Septuagint by erripse]. Both words are used in the same sense (Genesis 37:20; Genesis 37:24; Exodus 1:22; Judges 9:53). Sometimes, however, the Hebrew verb occurs in a milder sense-to put or lay down with tender care (2 Kings 2:16); as also the Greek verb (Matthew 15:30). This meaning it has here. х Harcheeq (H7368)] - far off, denoting a variable distance (Genesis 37:18; Exodus 2:4; Exodus 20:18; Exodus 20:21; Exodus 24:1; Exodus 33:7; Joshua 3:4; 1 Samuel 26:13; 2 Samuel 15:17; 2 Kings 2:7; Ezra 3:13; Nehemiah 4:19; Nehemiah 12:43); but defined here by the adjunctive comparison, as it were a bow-shot х kimTachªweey (H2909) qeshet (H7198)] - those drawing the bow; i:e., as far as archers usually shot. х 'Al (H408) 'er'eh (H7200) bªmowt (H4194) hayaaled (H3206)] - let me not look (or, I cannot look) upon the death of the child. [The verb to see, followed by the preposition bª-, denotes beholding anything painful or sad (cf. Genesis 44:34; Exodus 2:25; Numbers 11:15; Esther 8:6).]
She ... lift up her voice, and wept. [The Septuagint has: aneboeesan de to paidion eklausen, as if they both cried and wept. But Ishmael was then incapable of weeping.] The historical painting in this passage is true to nature, as it represents the speedy exhaustion of a young immature lad, and the greater power of endurance in the mother's frame.