Genesis 21:15

Summary

The verse describes the moment the water in the skin container was used up, after which the woman placed the boy under one of the bushes. The Hebrew presents two sequential actions joined by narrative verb forms, marking a cause-and-effect progression in the story.

Key words

• va-yikhlu ("and they were finished", H3615J) — qal narrative verb, plural, agreeing with ha-mayim ("the water"); marks the completion of the water supply as the first event in the sequence.
• ha-mayim (H4325G) — masculine plural noun with definite article; grammatically plural in Hebrew even though translated as a singular mass noun ("the water") in English.
• min-ha-chemet ("from the skin", H4480A + H2573) — preposition plus definite noun, feminine singular, specifying the source from which the water was depleted (a leather water skin/container).
• va-tashlekh ("and she threw/cast", H7993) — hiphil (causative) narrative verb, third person feminine singular; the causative stem intensifies the action beyond simple placing, suggesting a forceful or abrupt motion.
• tachat 'achad ha-sichim ("under one of the bushes", H8478G + H0259 + H7880) — a construct chain: tachat ("under") governs 'achad ("one of"), which itself is in construct with ha-sichim ("the bushes"), producing the phrase "under one of the bushes."

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative vav on va-yikhlu, tying it directly to the preceding narrative flow ("and then the water was finished"). The subject ha-mayim is grammatically plural in Hebrew, though the verb yikhlu agrees with it in plural form — a normal pattern for this noun in Biblical Hebrew, even when the referent (water in a skin) is a single quantity.

The second clause, introduced by va-tashlekh, uses the hiphil stem of the verb "to throw" (H7993). The hiphil is the causative binyan, and here it renders the action as "she caused [the boy] to be cast/thrown," which carries more force than a simple "she placed" would. The direct object marker 'et precedes ha-yeled ("the boy"), marking him as the definite direct object of the action, though the marker itself is not translated.

The final phrase, tachat 'achad ha-sichim, uses a construct chain: tachat ("under") is followed by 'achad ("one of"), itself construct with ha-sichim ("the bushes"), producing the sense "under one of the bushes" — a plural set of bushes from which one instance is designated as the location.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders ha-chemet ("the skin", H2573) as ἀσκοῦ ("wineskin/leather bag"), consistent with the Hebrew. For ha-sichim ("the bushes", H7880), the LXX has ἐλάτης ("fir tree" or similar tree), a singular noun, differing from the Hebrew's plural "bushes" construct phrase. The Vulgate similarly reads arborum ("of the trees"), plural, with unam ("one"), aligning more closely with a tree-type rendering rather than "bushes." The Hebrew verb va-tashlekh ("she threw", causative) is rendered in the Vulgate as abjecit ("she cast away/abandoned"), and in the LXX as ἔρριψεν ("she threw"), both preserving the forceful nuance of the hiphil form.