Genesis 21:17

Summary

The verse reports that God heard the voice of the boy (Ishmael), and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, telling her not to be afraid because God had heard the boy's voice in the place where he was. The passage contains two parallel statements about God hearing the boy's qol ("voice/sound"), framing the divine response to Hagar's situation.

Key words

• va-yishma' ("and he heard", H8085G) — qal narrative verb (vav + prefix conjugation) marking the first main event of the sequence: God's hearing.
• qol ("sound of / voice of", H6963A) — masculine singular noun in construct state, linking to ha-na'ar ("the lad"); appears twice, forming a verbal link between the opening notice (v.17a) and the angel's explanation (v.17b).
• mal'akh 'Elohim ("angel of God", H4397H + H0430G) — construct phrase; mal'akh is construct, requiring the following noun to complete its meaning ("angel of ---").
• tir'i ("you be afraid", H3372G) — qal verb in jussive/prohibitive form following the negation 'al ("may not", H0408), producing the prohibition "do not fear."
• sham ("there", H8033G) — adverb closing the verse, combined with ba'asher hu' ("where he [is]") to locate the boy spatially without further specifying the place.

What the text says

The verse is built on a chain of narrative vav-forms (va-yishma', va-yiqra', va-yomer), each advancing the sequence of events: hearing, calling, speaking. The subject of the first and third main verbs is 'Elohim ("God", H0430G, grammatically plural but referring to a single subject here), while the second main verb's subject is mal'akh 'Elohim ("angel of God"), a construct phrase where "angel" is bound to "God." The direct object marker 'et (H0853) before qol ha-na'ar signals that "the sound of the lad" is the object being heard, not merely background information.

The phrase mah-lakh ("what to you", H4100 + H9005 + H9032) is an idiomatic construction using the preposition le- ("to") with a second-person feminine suffix, addressed to Hagar; it does not use a verb "to be" explicitly, following typical Hebrew possessive/existential phrasing. The prohibition 'al-tir'i uses the particle 'al (H0408) rather than the more absolute negation lo', which in Hebrew grammar is associated with instructions tied to the immediate moment. The closing clause ba'asher hu' sham ("in that he [is] there") uses the relative particle 'asher (H0834B) with the preposition ba- to form a spatial relative clause, followed by the adverb sham ("there," H8033G), locating the boy without naming the place.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders na'ar ("lad", H5288) as paidiou ("child/little child"), a diminutive term, where the Hebrew na'ar does not itself specify small age. The LXX also adds ek tou topou hou ēn ("from the place where he was") in the first clause, a phrase not present in the Hebrew text at that position (it appears only in the second half of the Hebrew verse, v.17b, as ba'asher hu' sham). The Vulgate's Quid agis, Agar? ("What are you doing, Hagar?") interprets mah-lakh differently from a literal "what [is] to you," shifting from a state-of-being question to an action question.