Genesis 21:8

21:8 The child grew and was weaned. Abraham prepared ¹  a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. ² 

Genesis 21:15

21:15 When the water in the skin was gone, she shoved ³  the child under one of the shrubs.

Genesis 37:30

37:30 returned to his brothers, and said, “The boy isn’t there! And I, where can I go?”

[21:8]  ¹ tn Heb “made.”

[21:8]  ² sn Children were weaned closer to the age of two or three in the ancient world, because infant mortality was high. If an infant grew to this stage, it was fairly certain he or she would live. Such an event called for a celebration, especially for parents who had waited so long for a child.

[21:15]  ³ tn Heb “threw,” but the child, who was now thirteen years old, would not have been carried, let alone thrown under a bush. The exaggerated language suggests Ishmael is limp from dehydration and is being abandoned to die. See G. J. Wenham, Genesis (WBC), 2:85.