Topic: Persons Of The Bible - Ishmael

The name "Ishmael" is derived from the Hebrew name יִשְׁמָעֵאל (Yishma'el) meaning "God will hear" or "God hears."

Ishmael was Abraham's eldest son, by Hagar the concubine (Gen. 16:15; 17:23). Ishmael was born at Mamre, when Abraham was eighty-six years of age, eleven years after his arrival in Canaan (16:3; 21:5). With the institution of the covenant of circumcision, God renewed his promise respecting Ishmael. He does not again appear in the narrative until the weaning of Isaac. At the age of thirteen Ishmael was circumcised (17:25). Ishmael grew up a true child of the desert, wild and wayward. On the occasion of the weaning of Isaac, Ishmael's 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 Ishmael with no more than a skin of water and some bread. Comforted by the renewal of God's promise to make of Ishmael a great nation, Abraham sent them away, and they departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. His mother took Ishmael a wife out of the land of Egypt." (Genesis 21:9-21) This wife of Ishmael was the mother of the twelve sons and one daughter. The narrative describing this act is one of the most beautiful and touching incidents of patriarchal life (Gen. 21:14-16). 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). Ishmael became a great desert chief, but of his history little is recorded. Ishmael 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 Ishmael's life but little is known. Ishmael died at the age of one hundred and thirty-seven years, but where and when are unknown (25:17). The twelve sons of Ishmael peopled the north and west of the Arabian peninsula, and eventually formed the chief element of the Arab nation, the wandering Bedouin tribes. They are now mostly Mohammedans who look to him as their spiritual father, as the Jews look to Abraham. Their language, which is generally acknowledged to have been the Arabic community so called, has been adopted with insignificant exceptions throughout Arabia. The term "Ishmaelite" occur on three occasions: (Genesis 37:25,27,28; 39:1; Judges 8:24; Psalms 83:6), "their hand against every man, and every man's hand against them."

A person named "Ishmael" was one of the sons of Azel, a descendant of Saul through Meribbaal or Mephibosheth. (1 Chronicles 8:38; 9:44)

A person named "Ishmael" was a man of Judah, father of Zebadiah. (2 Chronicles 19:11)

A person named "Ishmael" was another man of Judah, son of Jehohanan; one of the captains of hundreds who assisted Jehoiada in restoring Joash to the throne. (2 Chronicles 23:1)

A person named "Ishmael" was a priest of the Bene-Pashur, who was forced by Ezra to relinquish his foreign wife. (Ezra 10:22)

A person named "Ishmael" was the son of Nethaniah; a perfect marvel of craft and villainy, whose treachery forms one of the chief episodes of the history of the period immediately succeeding the first fall of Jerusalem. His exploits are related in (Jeremiah 40:7; Jeremiah 41:16) with a short summary. During the siege of the city he had fled across the Jordan where he found a refuge at the court of Baalis. After the departure of the Chaldeans, Ishmael made no secret of his intention to kill the superintendent left by the king of Babylon and usurp his position. Of this Zedaliah was warned in express terms by Johanan and his companions, but notwithstanding entertained Ishmael and his followers at a feast, (Jeremiah 41:1) during which Ishmael murdered Gedaliah and all his attendants. The same night he killed all Zedaliah's establishment, including some Chaldean soldiers who were there. For two days the massacre remained entirely unknown to the people of the town. On the second day eighty devotees were bringing incense and offerings to the ruins of the temple. At his invitation they turned aside to the residence of the superintendent, and there Ishmael and his band butchered nearly the whole number: ten only escaped by offering a heavy ransom for their lives. This done he descended to the town, surprised and carried off the daughters of King Zedekiah, who had been sent there by Nebuchadnezzar for safety, with their eunuchs and their Chaldean guard, (Jeremiah 41:10,16) and all the people of the town, and made off with his prisoners to the country of the Ammonites. The news of the massacre had by this time got abroad, and Ishmael was quickly pursued by Johanan and his companions. He was attacked, two of his bravos slain, the whole of the prey recovered; and Ishmael himself with the remaining eight of his people, escaped to the Ammonites.

Derived from Easton's and Smith's Bible Dictionaries

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