Genesis 21:16
And she went, and sat her down over against him a good way off, as it were a bowshot: for she said, Let me not see the death of the child. And she sat over against him, and lift up her voice, and wept.
Cross-reference
In Genesis 16:10, God promised Hagar her descendants would be too numerous to count — the very promise she has apparently forgotten as she sits in despair, unable to watch her son die.
Judah uses the same 'how can I bear to see' structure — anguish at witnessing harm befall a loved one, echoing Hagar's inability to watch her child die.
In 2 Kings 25:7, Zedekiah is forced to watch his sons slaughtered — the brutal opposite of Hagar, who turns away to avoid seeing her child die.
Isaiah 49:15 uses a mother's love for her nursing child as God's image of faithfulness — directly echoing Hagar's anguish here.
Esther uses the same 'how can I bear to see' language — anguish at witnessing destruction of those she loves, echoing Hagar's maternal despair.
The real mother's desperate plea for her child's life mirrors Hagar's anguish — both show a mother driven to extremes over her child's survival.
In 1 Kings 19:4, Elijah sits under a broom tree wishing to die — another OT figure in the wilderness consumed by despair, ready to give up on life.