To what crying was Hashem responding?

Question

In Bereishit 21, Avraham sends Hagar and Ishmael out with water. When the water ran out, she tosses him over to some bushes and removes herself so as not to see him dying. According to pasuk 16, she cries. [text from chabad.org]

16.And she went and sat down from afar, at about the distance of two bowshots, for she said, "Let me not see the child's death." And she sat from afar, and she raised her voice and wept. טז.וַתֵּלֶךְ וַתֵּשֶׁב לָהּ מִנֶּגֶד הַרְחֵק כִּמְטַחֲוֵי קֶשֶׁת כִּי אָמְרָה אַל אֶרְאֶה בְּמוֹת הַיָּלֶד וַתֵּשֶׁב מִנֶּגֶד וַתִּשָּׂא אֶת קֹלָהּ וַתֵּבְךְּ: ‏

17.And God heard the lad's voice, and an angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, "What is troubling you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the lad's voice in the place where he is. יז.וַיִּשְׁמַע אֱלֹהִים אֶת קוֹל הַנַּעַר וַיִּקְרָא מַלְאַךְ אֱלֹהִים | אֶל הָגָר מִן הַשָּׁמַיִם וַיֹּאמֶר לָהּ מַה לָּךְ הָגָר אַל תִּירְאִי כִּי שָׁמַע אֱלֹהִים אֶל קוֹל הַנַּעַר בַּאֲשֶׁר הוּא שָׁם: ‏

But the text never indicates that the boy cried! His mother did and yet the meforshim like Rashi point out that it was HIS prayers which were answered:

From here [we learn] that the sick person’s prayer is more effective than the prayer of others on his behalf, and is the first to be accepted. — [from Gen. Rabbah 53:14]

Why would the text overtly ascribe the crying to Hagar and then have that crying ignored, because unmentioned crying is more powerful?

Answer 1

Well, the answer is within your question...

יז.וַיִּשְׁמַע אֱלֹהִים אֶת קוֹל הַנַּעַר וַיִּקְרָא מַלְאַךְ אֱלֹהִים | אֶל הָגָר מִן הַשָּׁמַיִם וַיֹּאמֶר לָהּ מַה לָּךְ הָגָר אַל תִּירְאִי כִּי שָׁמַע אֱלֹהִים אֶל קוֹל הַנַּעַר בַּאֲשֶׁר הוּא שָׁם: ‏

And God heard the lad's voice, and an angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, "What is troubling you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the lad's voice in the place where he is.

Although Hagar was crying, it was Yishmael voice that was heard.

Obviously, he was not singing , but crying, after being tossed by his mother, thirsty, under some bushes.

Answer 2

Rav Hirsch says that Yishmael crying had already occured before Hagar threw him away

Hashem has already heard your child, there where he lies struggling. Had you put your trust in Hashem, had you not thrown your child there but laid him gently down, had you not left him but had you remained by him as becomes a mother, then you would already have seen the well, there just where he is.

Since Yishmael was already sick and dying of fever and thirst, he would have been crying about it already. His mother just ignored him and kept going until she could not take it anymore and then threw him away and went aside to mourn and wail because she thought that he was going to die.

My own thought about this situation, based on the explanation that she miscarried the first time she ran away follows. She reacted so strongly because the first time she miscarried. She may have thought that for Yitzchak to become the heir Yishmael too would have to die so that Yitzchak would be the eldest. That could be why she refused to respond the first time until the mal'ach spoke to her three separate times and had to be explicitly commanded by Hashem to see the well and give him the water. Note also that he immediately became well once he got the water from the well which is itself a nes.

Answer 3

There is a saying by Rabi from Kotzk :
"A person who wants to pray but can't do it, that is the best praying".
This is what Ishmaael did.
He couldn't pray and god heard his "Internal" pray which is stronger than the verbal one by his mother.

Answer 4

Perhaps we can provide a breakdown as follows:

In the case of Hagar she was definitely a desperate mother crying for her child but she she wasn't crying from a place of absolute faith that Hashem would help her. The Targum Yonasan 21:16 says she only cried after her idol did not respond to her call for help. Then, in Bereishis Rabbah 53:14 we are told that when in the subsequent pasuk (21:18) she is instructed, "Get up, lift the youth", the following pasuk then says when she saw a well she went and filled the skin with water. The Eitz Yosef on the midrash there explains more clearly that she was evidently lacking faith as she believed the well would disappear.

Conversely, in the case of Yishmael, the reason why his crying was heard was due first and foremost to the fact that his age meant he did not warrant punishment.

The Zohar 1:118b tell us that 'Hashem heard the cry of the youth' because even though he was wicked he was not yet 20 years old and therefore not yet בר עונשין, i.e. not yet at the age for heavenly punishment.

Answer 5

Perhaps the answer is as follows.

Since she was crying on Yishmael's behalf it was considered as if he had cried. Thus the pasuk talks about Yishmael's voice, even while the soundwaves emitted from her mouth. She was his agent.

The Midrash is not saying he cried on his own behalf and therefore his prayer was more effective. The Midrash is figuring out the principle that a person's own prayer is more effective by a logical deduction.

The Midrash assumes the above interpretation of the pasuk. Says the Midrash, if what Hashem heard in Hagar was Yishmael, then surely Yishmael himself would have been heard.

The Midrash is noting that the Merciful chose to imply that the reason Hagar's prayer was answered was because Hashem heard Yishmael's voice in her. If so, how much more so if Yishmael himself had called out!