Genesis 21:14

Summary

Genesis 21:14 narrates Abraham rising early, giving Hagar provisions (bread and a skin of water) which he places on her shoulder, and sending her away together with the boy. The verse concludes with Hagar's departure and her wandering in the wilderness of Beer Sheba.

Key words

• yashkem ("he rose early", H7925) — hiphil (causative) stem, part of the narrative wayyiqtol chain; the causative form frames the action as Abraham "causing himself" to rise early, opening the sequence of events.
• sam ("placing", H7760) — a qal participle, not a finite wayyiqtol verb. It breaks the narrative chain to describe a circumstance (how the items were positioned) rather than advancing the story as a new sequential event.
• yeshallecheha ("he sent her away", H7971) — piel (intensive) stem with a pronominal suffix "her" attached directly to the verb. The piel intensifies the sending, and the suffix makes Hagar the immediate object.
• shikhmah ("shoulder of-her", H7926) — construct noun with pronominal suffix, forming "her shoulder" as the location where the goods are placed.
• teta' ("she wandered", H8582) — qal wayyiqtol, the final verb of the chain, shifting the subject to Hagar and describing aimless movement rather than directed travel.

What the text says

The verse is built as a chain of wayyiqtol (narrative "and then") verbs carrying the main storyline: yashkem ("he rose early"), yiqqach ("he took"), yitten ("he gave"), yeshallecheha ("he sent away"), telekh ("she went"), teta' ("she wandered"). Within this chain, sam ("placing", H7760) stands out grammatically as a participle rather than a wayyiqtol verb — it does not add a new event to the sequence but describes the manner in which the bread and water were positioned on Hagar's shoulder, subordinate to the act of giving (yitten).

A further grammatical detail concerns the object structure of yeshallecheha. The verb carries a pronominal suffix "her" (H9024), but before it the text places ve'et-hayeled ("and the boy", H0853 + H3206) using the direct object marker 'et. This means the boy is grammatically joined as a second object to the same verb that already has "her" suffixed to it — the sending away applies to both Hagar and the boy together, expressed through two different object markers (a suffix and an independent 'et phrase) rather than a single coordinated object.

Differences between versions

The LXX text as given shows a gap: "ἐπέθηκεν ἐπὶ τὸν καὶ καὶ τὸ παιδίον" appears to be missing a noun for "shoulder" between "τὸν" and "καὶ καὶ," where the Hebrew has shikhmah ("her shoulder"). The Vulgate's scapulae ejus ("her shoulder") and the Hebrew shikhmah correspond directly, while the LXX as transmitted here lacks a clear equivalent term at that point.