Genesis 21:14

a bottle of water or, better, "a skin of water." LXX ἀσκός. The vessel for carrying water in the East is generally the skin of a goat. The recollection of this will explain passages like Matthew 9:17. Its shape made it easy to carry or to hang up. Cf. Psalms 119:83.

and the child These words imply that Hagar carried the child, as well as the skin of water, upon her shoulder. So the LXX καὶ ἐπέθηκεν ἐπὶ τὸν ὦμον αὐτῆς καὶ τὸ παιδίον. Lat., avoiding the difficulty, "tradiditque puerum."

According to P (cf. Genesis 16:16; Genesis 21:5), Ishmael would be a boy of over fourteen years of age. According to E, Ishmael is still a child (cf. Genesis 21:15).

the wilderness of Beer-sheba i.e. the high plateau at the extreme south of Palestine. The country is hilly and bare.

Beer-sheba the sanctuary of the south the modern Bir-es-Seba. See, for the meaning of its name, Genesis 21:29; Genesis 26:33.