ISHMAEL ĭsh’ mĭ əl (יִשְׁמָעֵ֔אל, God hears). Son of Abraham and Hagar, mentioned mainly in Genesis 16; 17; 21.

1. Name. The name is patterned on a common Sem. theophoric formation in which the deity is the subject of a sentence, in this case El (God), and the other element the predicate, in this case the verb “to hear.” The time and mode of the sentence are determined by the circumstances leading to the naming, particularly the circumstances surrounding the person’s birth. Thus “Ishmael” may mean “God will hear,” “God hears,” “God heard,” “May God hear.” In this case it means “God heard” (Gen 16:11), viz., the affliction of Hagar. There is no reason to doubt this meaning, as the circumstance surrounding birth was a perfectly normal way to arrive at a name for a child (AIs, 43). Cf. Genesis 21:17 where God heard the voice of Ishmael.

2. The birth of Ishmael. In some parts of the ancient Near E it was obligatory for a wife who was barren to provide her husband with a slave woman who would bear children for her. The children were to be under the control of the wife, not the slave. A case from Nuzu is discussed by Speiser, Genesis, 120. Childless Sarah obtained a son by Hagar, and Ishmael was legally the child of Sarah. This does not explain Sarah’s treatment of Hagar, in spite of the fact that some trs. (ANET) of the Nuzu document in question (Harvard Sem. Series, 67) add the clause “Kelimninu may not send the offspring away.” This tr. is based on a misreading of the tablet and recently is tr. by Speiser “Kelimninu will obtain offspring (by the slave).” The closest parallel is still to be found in Hammurabi’s Code, ə 146. Although this is a specialized case involving the rights of a priestess, the principle seems to be established that a productive slave woman may not assert herself against the unproductive wife. If she does so, she would be reduced to slave status. As Hagar violated this principle, Sarah was within her right to “deal harshly” with her (Gen 16:6).

3. Life of Ishmael. Ishmael was born when Abraham was eighty-six years old (16:16) while he was dwelling near Hebron (13:18). His mother was an Egyp. but she had been confronted by God in a time of her need (16:7-13). When Ishmael was thirteen (17:1), God made His covenant with Abraham, according to which all the members of Abraham’s household were to be circumcised. Ishmael was included. When it was announced to Abraham that Sarah would bear a son, his response, “Oh that Ishmael might live in thy sight,” suggests that Ishmael fell short of Abraham’s expectation (17:18). Several years later, after Isaac had been born and weaned, Ishmael and his mother were expelled from the family to wander in the desert around Beersheba. At one point they were near death from thirst when God “heard the boy” and provided water. With the help of God Ishmael lived the rest of his life in the desert, esp. in the wilderness of Paran. It was here that he became proficient in the use of the bow; and the relative proximity to Egypt, as well as his mother’s background, explains his marriage to an Egyp. That he did not altogether break contact with the main Patriarchal family is shown by his presence at the burial of Abraham (25:9) and the fact that Esau married Ishmael’s daughter Mahalath (28:9). Ishmael lived 137 years and “was gathered to his kindred.”

4. Divine statements concerning Ishmael. (a) God selects his name and, whatever the significance, the similarity of wording to Isaiah 7:14 is striking. (b) God describes his character as that of a wild ass in the sense of his being a wandering nomad (cf. Job 39:5-8). As such, he will be in opposition to his more settled kinsmen. He shall camp “in defiance of them” rather than “to the east of them” (Speiser, Genesis, 118). (c) God destines him for greatness outside the covenant. Genesis 17:20, 21 makes it clear that Ishmael was to be blessed by God as a great nation with the same twelvefold organizational structure as Israel was to have, but without direct experience of the covenant. This distinction between national greatness and covenant experience says implicitly a great deal about what the covenant really involved (Von Rad, Genesis). (National greatness is also promised in Genesis 21:13, 18.) Genesis 17:22, 27 shows that the covenant is not to be identified with circumcision no matter how much that identification may appear to be necessitated by Genesis 17:10. For Ishmael was circumcised as God had commanded (v. 23) and yet was not the covenant son.

5. Abraham and Sarah’s treatment of Ishmael. Abraham treated Ishmael as the son whom God had promised. Even when God revealed that Sarah was to have a son, Abraham did not understand why that was necessary rather than having Ishmael as heir (17:18). Even after Isaac’s birth Abraham acted kindly toward Ishmael and was grieved at Sarah’s desire to repudiate him. On the other hand, Sarah saw Ishmael as a threat to Isaac’s position in the family and found opportunity to have him expelled (ch. 21). This request to cast out the handmaid and her son seems to be against all principle of ancient law. The children of handmaids could be demoted if there was adequate reason, but hardly cast out. The fact that Abraham was against such a treatment and followed only on God’s command suggests that the action taken was not in accordance with contemporary patterns. The question also must be asked whether there was something that Ishmael did that was a threat to Isaac or whether it was his existence which constituted such a threat. This is bound up with the meaning of meṩahēq in Genesis 21:9, whether it represents Ishmael as mocking Isaac or playing with Isaac. It is questionable whether the word ever means in the OT “to mock, deride.” There is no passage which clearly means this and the etymology suggests otherwise; viz., Piel in the causative sense. Samson caused the Philistines to laugh wayyeṩaḥēq (Judg 16:25). Thus Sarah objected to Ishmael as a competitor of Isaac, not for some specific action he had done.

6. Purpose of the Ishmael sequence in Genesis. The author of Genesis includes the Ishmael account primarily to bring about a contrast between Isaac and Ishmael, not so much as persons but as illustrations of God’s working. The point is that God, in fulfilling His promises to Abraham, was in no way bound to the natural and the ordinary, i.e., the flesh. He allowed the operation of these in the birth of Ishmael but He superseded them in the birth of Isaac. Although God’s preference for Isaac, as son of the wife, was in accord with custom, the rejection of Hagar and Ishmael served to make the contrast bolder, and thus ultimately to remind Israel that all was of grace.

7. Descendants. The descendants of Ishmael are given identically in two passages (Gen 25:12-16; 1 Chron 1:29-31). What is most striking is the fact that there were twelve sons counted as there were twelve sons counted to Jacob. With this is to be compared the twelve sons of Nahor (Gen 22:21-24) and the twelve “sons” of Esau (36:10-14) Other parallels are possible (Keturah’s “sons” [25:1-4] are thirteen) and suggest an organizational pattern common to these peoples. The Ishmaelites were ruled by princes (nəsī’im, 25:16). These Ishmaelite tribes settled in the general area where their ancestor had grown up, i.e., the wilderness of Paran. This area is described in Genesis 25:18 as “from Havilah to Shur, which is opposite Egypt in the direction of Assyria.” Some of the names of his descendants are attested in Assyrian records as tribes. More important of the twelve are Nebaioth, prob. on linguistic grounds not to be identified with the later Nabataeans, and Jetur, a name found later in the name Ituraea of NT times (Luke 3:1). (For details see J. Montgomery, Arabia and the Bible.) On occasion the Ishmaelites are pictured as hostile to the Israelites (1 Chron 5:19) in accordance with the statement of God concerning Ishmael (Gen 16:12). Finally, the Ishmaelites are coupled with the Midianites (some of the descendants of Keturah) in some passages, thus suggesting an overlapping of the two terms. The term Ishmaelite is applied to the Midianites (Judg 8:24) and the same group receives both names in Genesis 37:25-28 where Joseph’s brothers sold him to a caravan of traders and in Genesis 37:36; 39:1 where Joseph is sold to Potiphar in Egypt. There is no need to distinguish a Midianite from an Ishm aelite account of the sale of Joseph.

8. Paul’s use of the Ishmael sequence. Although he does not mention Ishmael by name, Paul is obviously developing his teaching in Galatians 4 on the basis of the Genesis passages. Ishmael was born “according to the flesh” and “persecuted him that was born according to the Spirit” (Gal 4:29). The fact that the next v. is a quotation from Genesis 21:10 suggests that Paul has that context before his mind, and that it is from that context that he derives the remark about Ishmael persecuting Isaac. However, the Genesis context does not suggest any such persecution. Lightfoot presents two explanations: (1) Paul was influenced by, although without endorsing, rabbinical traditions of Ishmael’s opposition to Isaac which were read into the Genesis account; (2) Paul read back into the individuals that enmity which characterized their descendants. From this, Paul concluded that the Galatians, who are free in Christ, should cast out the ones seeking to bring them into bondage. Of these facts drawn from the OT, Paul says that they are allēgoroumena, an expression which is open to different interpretations. Does he mean that the passage in Genesis is to be understood as an allegory, or that it is to be applied allegorically?

9. Other individuals bearing the name. The only other significant person named Ishmael was one of the royal family of Judah when Gedaliah was appointed governor of Judah by Nebuchadrezzar. In Jeremiah, 40; 41 is the account of his murder of Gedaliah and his taking hostages, among whom was Jeremiah. Four other separate Ishmaels are mentioned (1 Chron 8:38; 2 Chron 19:11; 23:1; and Ezra 10:22).

Bibliography KD (1874); Lightfoot, Epistle to the Galatians (1875); J. Montgomery, Arabia and the Bible (1934); G von Rad, Genesis (1961); E. A. Speiser, Genesis (1964).