Rashi on TanakhGenesis 21

Adonoy remembered Sarah. This section was placed here to teach you that whoever prays for mercy for another and he [the one who prays] needs the same thing, he will be answered first. For it states: “he [Avraham] prayed,” etc., and immediately: “Adonoy remembered Sarah,” i.e., He had already remembered [even] before He had cured Avimelech.

Remembered Sarah as He had said. [This refers to the promise] of conceiving.

As He had spoken. [Referring to the promise] of giving birth. Where is [the reference to God’s] saying? and where is [the reference to God’s] speaking? Saying: “Elohim said: Indeed your wife Sarah,” etc. Speaking: “The word of Hashem came to Avram at the Covenant Between the Pieces,” where it is stated: “That one [Eliezer] will not be your heir” and He brought forth the heir from Sarah.

And Adonoy did for Sarah as He had spoken. [Meaning] as He spoke] to Avraham.

At the designated time that [He] had declared. [There is a dispute between] R. Yudan and R. Chama: R. Yudan says: This teaches that he [Yitzchok] was born after nine months so that it not be said that he was [conceived] from Avimelech’s household. whereas, R. Chama says after seven months. At the designated time that [He] had declared. [Onkelos translates it] “Of which He spoke.” [I.e.,] the designated time that He spoke and set when he, told him “At the designated time I will return to you.” He scratched out a mark in the wall and told him, “When the sun will [again] reach this mark next year, she [Sarah] will give birth.”

In his old age. That his [Yitzchok’s] facial features were similar to his [Avraham’s].

Will laugh with me. [Meaning:] will rejoice for me. The Midrashic explanation [is that] many childless women conceived when she did; many sick were healed that day; many prayers were answered with hers; and there was much joy in the world.

Who said to Avraham. An expression of praise and esteem as in “Who is it that did and accomplished?” [or] “Who has created all these?” [Here meaning:] “See Who He is, and to what extent He keeps His promise! God promises and does it!”

Said. Scripture uses an alternate word and does not say דִבֶּר because its [מִלֵּל] numerical value is 100 thereby alluding to Avraham’s being 100 years old.

That Sarah would nurse children. Why is בָנִים [children] in the plural form? [Because] on the day of the feast the princesses brought their children with them and she [Sarah] nursed them. For they were saying that [actually] Sarah had not given birth but brought in a foundling from the street.

And was weaned. After he was 24 months old.

A great feast. Because the great people of the time were there [namely:] Sheim, Eiver, and Avimelech.

Mocking. This is a reference to idolatry as it is said: “They arose to revel.” An alternate explanation: A reference to illicit relations as is said “To mock me.” An alternate explanation: A reference to murder as is said: “Let the lads arise and make sport before us,” etc. For he [Yishmael] was quarreling with Yitzchok concerning their inheritance [whereupon] he [Yishmael] said: “I, being the first-born, deserve a double-share.” They went out to the field [where] he [Yishmael] took his bow and was shooting arrows at him as is said: “As a madman shooting arrows, etc., and then says, ‘I am only playing’” [It is from Sarah’s response that you can derive this when she said, “For the son of this slave-woman will not inherit.”]

With my son, with Yitzchok. Just for the fact that he is my son even if he were not as deserving as Yitzchok; or [if he would be] as deserving as Yitzchok even if he were not my son, this one [Yishmael] does not deserve to share the inheritance with him [Yitzchok]. How much more is this so [that it is] “With my son, with Yitzchok” that he has both [of these qualities].

On account of his son. For he heard that he fell into bad ways. The plain explanation is because she told him to send him away.

Listen to her voice. We learn from this that Avraham was inferior to Sarah with regard to prophecy.

Bread and a skin [pouch] of water. But no silver and gold because he despised him for falling into bad ways.

With the lad. He also placed the child on her shoulder because Sarah had cast an evil eye on him and he was seized by a fever and could not walk on his own feet.

She went and lost her way. [Meaning] she returned to her family’s idolatry.

The water was used up. Because the sick [need to] drink a great deal.

Facing him. From afar.

Of bow-shots. [Meaning, the distance] of two shots. It [כִּמְטַחֲוֵי] has the meaning of shooting an arrow. It is used in the Mishnah “[שֶׁהֵטִיחַ] one who had relations with his wife.” [This term is used] because the seed shoots as does an arrow. If you ask: It should have been written כִּמְטַחֵי קֶשֶׁת? [The answer is:] it is grammatically correct to insert a vav here as in בְּחַגְוֵי הַסֶּלַע [in the clefts of the rock] [where בְּחַגְוֵי] has the same derivation as “The Land of Yehudah became לְחָגָּא [rupture] for those in Egypt”; and from the same derivation as: “[יָחוֹגּוּ] They reeled and staggered like a drunk.” Similarly: “קַצְוֵי אֶרֶץ —the ends of the earth” [קַצְוֵי] being derived from קָצֶה.

She sat facing him. As he came closer to dying she continued to move farther away.

The voice of the lad. [We derive] from this, that the prayer of the sick person is more effective than the prayers of others [who pray] for him and is sooner accepted.

In the place where he is. [I.e.,] he is judged according to his present deeds and not according to what he will do in the future. For the angels were declaiming against [him] and saying, “Master of the universe, for one whose descendants will eventually kill Your children with thirst You will provide for him a well?” And He responds to them, “But, what is he now, righteous or wicked?” They respond to Him: “He is righteous.” [Whereupon] He responds to them: “It is according to his present deeds that I judge him.” That is the meaning of “Where he is.” Where did they kill Israel with thirst? It was when Nebuchadnezzer exiled them, as it is said: “The burden of Arabia, etc., bring water to the one who is thirsty.” When they marched them near Arabian [lands], the Israelites said to their captors, “We beg of you, bring us to the descendants of our uncle Yishmael and they will take pity on us, as it is said, “you caravans of [דְּדָנִים] Dedanites”; do not read דְּדָנִים [Dedanites] but דוֹדִים [family kin]. [Whereupon] they [the Yishmaelites] came towards them bringing them salted meat and fish and [air-]inflated water-skins. The Israelites thought that they were full of water and when one would insert it into his mouth and then open it, the air would enter his body and he would die.

An expert archer. [רוֹבֶה is] one who shoots arrows with a bow.

Archer. He is so called because of his occupation as חַמָּר [a mule driver], גַמָּל [a cameldriver],. צַיָּד [a hunter]. Consequently, the letter שִׂין has a dagesh. He would dwell in the wilderness and rob the passers-by. That is what is referred to when it states “His hand [will be] against everyone, etc.”

From the land of Egypt. From the place where she was raised as it is said “She had an Egyptian handmaid.” This is what people mean by the adage: “Throw a stick in the air and it will return to its source.”

Elohim is with you. Because they saw that he left the Sedom area safely, and that he battled the kings and defeated, them and that his wife conceived in his old age.

With my son or my grandson. That is the limit of a father’s love for a son.

The kindness that I have done to you, do to me. “When I said to you, ‘Behold, my land is before you.’”

[He] reprimanded. [Meaning:] he had a dispute with him over it.

So that it will be proof for me. [לְעֵדָה is] the feminine form for “witness” as in “And the monument is [עֵדָה] witness.”

That I dug this well. Avimelech’s shepherds argued about it [the well] and they said, “We dug it.” They agreed among themselves that whoever appears at the well and the waters will rise towards him then it [the well] is his. And they [the waters] rose towards Avraham.

An eishel. Rav and Shmuel [offer varying opinions]. One says that it was an orchard from which fruit was brought for the guests’ meals and the other one says a guest-house. which contained various kinds of fruit. We find the term נְטִיעָה applied to tents, as it is said, “He will plant the tents of his palace.”

And there he proclaimed. [I.e.,] by means of that eishel the Name of the Holy One was called “God” to the entire world; [for] after they [the guests] would eat and drink he [Avraham] would tell them, “Bless the One from Whose food you have eaten. You may think that you have eaten my food, [but, actually] from the One Who by His word brought the world into being, have you eaten.”

For many days. [His stay here lasted] longer than in Chevron. He spent 25 years in Chevron. and here [in Beer Sheva] 26 [years]. For he was seventy-five years old when he left Charan. That same year: “He came and settled in the Plains of Mamrei.” For before this we do not find that he resided anywhere but there. Because in all his other places he was only a guest, stopping to rest, traveling, and moving on. As it is said: “Avram passed through,” “From there he moved,” “There was a famine in the land, [whereupon,] Avram went down to Egypt.” He spent only three months in Egypt for Pharaoh had sent him away. Immediately: “He continued on his travels” until: “He came and settled in the Plain of Mamrei” where he stayed until Sedom was overturned. Immediately: “Avraham journeyed from there” because he was ashamed of Lot, and arrived at the Land of Plishtim [Philistines] when he was ninety-nine years old for on the third day the angels came to him. making it 25 years [since he left Charan]. And since it states here “many days,” [it means] more than the preceding days [in Chevron]. Scripture does not intend to be indefinite but, to be clear; and if [the “many days”] would be two or more years [rather than one] it would clearly have stated so. [Therefore,] you must admit that they did not exceed by more than one year, making it a total of 26 years. He immediately left there and returned to Chevron. That year preceded the binding of Yitzchok by twelve years. (From Seder Olam).