Ishmael — God hears. (1.) Abraham’s eldest
son, by Hagar the concubine (Gen. 16:15; 17:23). He was born at Mamre, when
Abraham was eighty-six years of age, eleven years after his arrival in
Canaan (16:3; 21:5). At the age of thirteen he was circumcised (17:25). He
grew up a true child of the desert, wild and wayward. On the occasion of the
weaning of Isaac his rude and wayward spirit broke out in expressions of
insult and mockery (21:9, 10); and Sarah, discovering this, said to Abraham,
“Expel this slave and her son.” Influenced by a divine admonition, Abraham
dismissed Hagar and her son with no more than a skin of water and some
bread. The narrative describing this act is one of the most beautiful and
touching incidents of patriarchal life (Gen. 21:14–16). (See HAGAR.)
Ishmael settled in the land of Paran, a region lying
between Canaan and the mountains of Sinai; and “God was with him, and he
became a great archer” (Gen. 21:9–21). He became a great desert chief, but
of his history little is recorded. He was about ninety years of age when his
father Abraham died, in connection with whose burial he once more for a
moment reappears. On this occasion the two brothers met after being long
separated. “Isaac with his hundreds of household slaves, Ishmael with his
troops of wild retainers and half-savage allies, in all the state of a
Bedouin prince, gathered before the cave of Machpelah, in the midst of the
men of Heth, to pay the last duties to the ‘father of the faithful,’ would
make a notable subject for an artist” (Gen. 25:9). Of the after events of
his life but little is known. He died at the age of one hundred and
thirty-seven years, but where and when are unknown (25:17). He had twelve
sons, who became the founders of so many Arab tribes or colonies, the
Ishmaelites, who spread over the wide desert spaces of Northern Arabia from
the Red Sea to the Euphrates (Gen. 37:25, 27, 28; 39:1), “their hand against
every man, and every man’s hand against them.”
(2.) The son of Nethaniah, “of the seed royal” (Jer.
40:8, 15). He plotted against Gedaliah, and treacherously put him and others
to death. He carried off many captives, “and departed to go over to the
Ammonites.”
Easton, M.G.: Easton's Bible
Dictionary. Oak Harbor, WA : Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1996,
c1897