Genesis 21:15
And the water was spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs.
And the water was spent in the bottle,.... It was all drank up by them, being thirsty, having wandered about some time in a wilderness, where they could not replenish their bottle: the Jewish writers say {e} that when Hagar came into the wilderness, she began to wander after the idols of the house of Pharaoh her father, and immediately the water ceased from the bottle, or was drank up by Ishmael, being seized with a burning fever:
and she cast the child under one of the shrubs; not from off her shoulder, but out of her hand or bosom; being faint through thirst, he was not able to walk, and she, being weary in dragging him along in her hand, perhaps sat down and held him in her lap, and laid him in her bosom; but, imagining he was near his end, she laid him under one of the shrubs in the wilderness, to screen him from the scorching sun, and there left him; the Greek version is, "under one of the fir trees", and so says Josephus {f}: some Jewish writers {g} call them juniper trees; and some make this to be Ishmael's own act, and say, that, being fatigued with thirst, he went and threw himself under the nettles of the wilderness {h}, see Job 30:7.
{e} Pirke Eliezer, ut supra. (c. 30.) Targ. Jon. in loc.
{f} Antiqu. l. 1. c. 12. sect. 3.
{g} Bereshit, ut supra. (sect. 53. fol. 47. 4.)
{h} Pirke Eliezer, ut supra. (c. 30.)