¹ tn Heb “the messenger of the Lord.” Some identify the angel of the Lord as the preincarnate Christ because in some texts the angel is identified with the Lord himself. However, it is more likely that the angel merely represents the Lord; he can speak for the Lord because he is sent with the Lord’s full authority. In some cases the angel is clearly distinct from the Lord (see Judg 6:11-23). It is not certain if the same angel is always in view. Though the proper name following the noun “angel” makes the construction definite, this may simply indicate that a definite angel sent from the Lord is referred to in any given context. It need not be the same angel on every occasion. Note the analogous expression “the servant of the Lord,” which refers to various individuals in the OT (see BDB 714 s.v. עֶבֶד).

² tn Heb “And the angel of the Lord found her near the spring of water in the desert, near the spring on the way to Shur.”

³ tn Or “the South [country]”; Heb “the land of the Negev.”

sn Negev is the name for the southern desert region in the land of Canaan.

⁴ tn Heb “and he sojourned.”

⁵ tn Heb “they”; the referent (Ishmael’s descendants) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁶ tn Heb “which is by the face of,” or near the border. The territory ran along the border of Egypt.

⁷ tn Heb “as you go.”

⁸ sn The name Asshur refers here to a tribal area in the Sinai.

⁹ tn Heb “he fell.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “upon the face of all his brothers.” This last expression, obviously alluding to the earlier oracle about Ishmael (Gen 16:12), could mean that the descendants of Ishmael lived in hostility to others or that they lived in a territory that was opposite the lands of their relatives. While there is some ambiguity about the meaning, the line probably does give a hint of the Ishmaelite-Israelite conflicts to come.