Genesis 16:14

14 Therefore she called that well, The well of him that liveth and seeth me (And that is why people call that well The Well of Lahairoi, or Beerlahairoi); (and) that well is betwixt Kadesh and Bered.

Genesis 16:14 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 16:14

Wherefore the well was called Beerlahairoi
That is, the fountain where the angel found her, ( Genesis 16:7 ) ; this, from the appearance of God to her at it, was afterwards called by her and others by this name, which signifies "the well of him that liveth and seeth me"; that is, of the living and all seeing God, and who had taken a special care of her, and favoured her with a peculiar discovery of his love to her: or this may have respect to herself, and be rendered, "the well of her that liveth and seeth"; that had had a sight of God, and yet was alive; lived though she had seen him, and after she had seen him, and was still indulged with a sight of him. Aben Ezra says, the name of this well, at the time he lived, was called Zemum, he doubtless means Zemzem, a well near Mecca, which the Arabs say ^F26 is the well by which Hagar sat down with Ishmael, and where she was comforted by the angel, ( Genesis 21:19 ) :

behold, [it is] between Kadesh and Bered;
Kadesh is the same with Kadesh Barnea in the wilderness, ( Numbers 13:3 Numbers 13:26 ) ( Joshua 14:7 ) . The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan call it Rekam, the same with Petra, the chief city of Arabia Petraea, inhabited in later times by the Nabathaeans, the posterity of Ishmael: and Bered is nowhere else mentioned, it is called by Onkelos Chagra or Hagra, by which he interprets Shur, ( Genesis 16:7 ) ; and by the Targum of Jonathan it is called Chaluza, a noted town in Idumea, the same with Chelus, mentioned with Kades in the Apocrypha;

``And to all that were in Samaria and the cities thereof, and beyond Jordan unto Jerusalem, and Betane, and Chelus, and Kades, and the river of Egypt, and Taphnes, and Ramesse, and all the land of Gesem,'' (Judith 1:9)

and so Jerom ^F1 speaks of a place called Elusa, near the wilderness of Kadesh, which in his times was inhabited by Saracens, the descendants of Ishmael; and this bids fair to the Bered here spoken of, and seems to be its Greek name, and both are of the same signification; for Bered signifies hail, as does Chalaza in Greek, which the Targumists here make Chaluza; between Kadesh and Barath, as Jerom ^F2 calls it, Hagar's well was shown in his days.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F26 See Pitts's Account of the Mahometans, c. 7. p. 103.
F1 In Vita Hilarionis, fol. 84. 1.
F2 De loc. Heb. fol. 89. E.

Genesis 16:14 In-Context

12 this shall be a wild man; his hand shall be against all men, and the hands of all men shall be against him; and he shall set (his) tabernacles even against all his brethren (and he shall be at odds with all of his kinsmen).

13 Forsooth Hagar called the name of the Lord that spake to her, Thou God that sawest me; for she said, Forsooth here I saw the hinder things of him that saw me. (And Hagar called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, Thou God who sawest me; for she said, Here I saw him who saw me, and I still lived.)

14 Therefore she called that well, The well of him that liveth and seeth me (And that is why people call that well The Well of Lahairoi, or Beerlahairoi); (and) that well is betwixt Kadesh and Bered.

15 And (so) Hagar childed a son to Abram, which called his name Ishmael (and he named him Ishmael).

16 Abram was eighty years and six, when Hagar childed Ishmael to him. (Abram was eighty-six years old, when Hagar bare Ishmael for him.)