Ishmael : The Forgotten Son (Biblical Stories Explained)

ishmael what do we know about ishmael from the bible ishmael was abraham's firstborn son god promised abraham that he would have a son and that he would be the father of many nations when he appeared to him genesis 15. abraham on the other hand did not have any children as time passed sarah his wife had been unable to conceive and they began to wonder how the promise would be kept in genesis 16 sarah advises abraham to produce a child with her egyptian slave hagar this was apparently a normal practice at the period it was also used by jacob's wives in genesis 13. the woman would give her husband a woman but any children produced would be counted as the wife's children perhaps an ancient version of surrogacy while this may have appeared to abraham and sarah to be a viable option it really caused more issues than it solved hagar did conceive a child with abraham when hagar knew she was pregnant she began to despise sarah and sarah appealed to abraham for help abraham told sarah to do as she saw fit so she began to mistreat hagar and hagar ran away his name ishmael means god will hear god hears god heard may god hear genesis 16 new king james version now sarai abraham's wife had borne him no children and she had an egyptian maidservant whose name was hagar so sarais said to abraham see now the lord has restrained me from bearing children please go into my maid perhaps i shall obtain children by her and abraham heeded the voice of sarai then sarai abraham's wife took hagar her maid the egyptian and gave her to her husband abraham to be his wife after abraham had dwelt 10 years in the land of kanan so he went into hagar and she conceived and when she saw that she had conceived her mistress became despised in her eyes then saris said to abraham my wrong be upon you i gave my maid into your imprints and when she saw that she had conceived i became despised in her eyes the lord judged between you and me so abraham said to sarai indeed your maid is in your hand do to her as you please and when sarai dealt harshly with her she fled from her presence now the angel of the lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness by the spring on the way to shar and he said hagar sir eyes maid where have you come from and where are you going she said i am fleeing from the presence of my mistress sarai the angel of the lord said to her return to your mistress and submit yourself under her hand then the angel of the lord said to her i will multiply our descendants exceedingly so that they shall not be counted for multitude and the angel of the lord said to her behold you are with child and you shall bear a son you shall call his name ishmael because the lord has heard your affliction he shall be a wild man his hand shall be against every man and every man's hand against him and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren then she calls the name of the lord who spoke to her you are the god who sees for she said have i also here seen him who sees me therefore the well was called beer lahai roy observe it is between kadesh and beret so hagar bore abraham a son and abraham named his son kumagar bor ishmael abraham was 86 years old when hagar bore ishmael to abraham it was common in ancient times for a barren wife to present her husband with a slave woman who would bear children for her the woman not the slave was to be in charge of the children childless sarah obtained a son by hagar and ishmael was legally the child of sarah this does not explain sarah's treatment of hagar 3. life of ishmael ishmael was born to abraham when he was 86 years old and living near hebron genesis 16 16 new king james version abraham was 66 years old when hagar bore ishmael to abraham genesis 13 18 new king james version then abraham moved his tent and dwelt by the terabyth trees of mamrie which are in hebron and built an altar there for the lord his mother was of egyptian origin however god had addressed her in her hour dire need god made a covenant with abraham when ishmael was 13 years old requiring all members of abraham's household to be circumcised genesis 17 1 new king james version when abraham was 99 years old the lord appeared to abraham and said to him i am almighty god walk before me and be blameless ishmael and his mother were banished from the family several years later after isaac had been warned and weaned to wander in the wilderness around beer shabbat they were on the verge of dying of thirst when god heard the boy and gave water ishmael spent the rest of his life in the desert particularly in the wilderness of piranha with the help of god it was here that he learned to use the bow and his marriage to an egyptian explains his proximity to egypt as well as his mother's heritage his presence at abraham's funeral and the fact that esau married ishmael's daughter mahalaf demonstrates that he did not completely cut ties with the main patriarchal line genesis 15 9 new king james version and his sons isaac and ishmael buried him in the cave of machpalah which is before mamra in the field of ephron the son of zohar the haiti genesis 28 9 new king james version so hazah went to ishmael and took mahalath the daughter of ishmael abraham's son the sister of nibazat to be his wife in addition to the wives he had ishmael lived 137 years and was gathered to his kindred 4. divine statements concerning ishmael god characterizes his personality as that of a wild ass in the sense that he is a wandering nomad 39 5 8 new king james version who set the wild donkey free who loosed the bonds of the oniger whose home i have made the wilderness and the barren land his dwelling he scorns the tumult of the city he does not heed the shouts of the driver the range of the mountains is his pasture and he searches after every green thing as a result he will be at odds with his more settled relatives god has called him to greatness outside the covenant ishmael was to be rewarded by god as a large nation with the same 12-fold organizational structure as israel but without direct experience with the covenant according to genesis 17 20 21 genesis 17 new king james version when abraham was 99 years old the lord appeared to abraham and said to him i am almighty god walk before me and be blameless and i will make my covenant between me and you and i will multiply you exceedingly then abraham fell on his face and god talked with him saying as for me behold my covenant is with you and you shall be a father of many nations no longer shall your name be called abram but your name shall be abraham for i have made you a father of many nations i will make you exceedingly fruitful and i will make nations of you and kings shall come from you and i will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you and their generations for an everlasting covenant to be god to you and your descendants after you also i give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger all the land of canaan and an everlasting possession and i will be their god and god said to abraham as for you you shall keep my covenant you and your descendants after you throughout their generations this is my covenant which you shall keep between me and you and your descendants after you every male child among you shall be circumcised and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you he who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised every male child in your generations he was born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant he who is born in your house he who is bought with your money must be circumcised and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant and the uncircumcised male child who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin that person shall be cut off from his people he has broke my covenant then god said to abraham as for sarai your wife you shall not call her name sarai but sarah shall be her name and i will bless her and also give you a son by her then i will bless her and she shall be a mother of nations kings of peoples shall be from her then abraham fell on his face and laughed and said in his heart shall a child be born to a man who is 100 years old and chalcera who is 90 years old bear a child and abraham said to god o that ishmael might live before you then god said no sarah your wife shall bear you a son and you shall call his name isaac i will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant and with his descendants after him and as for ishmael i have heard you behold i have blessed him and will make him fruitful and will multiply him exceedingly he shall beget 12 princes and i will make him a great nation but my covenant i will establish with isaac who sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year then he finished talking with him and god went up from abraham so abraham took ishmael his son all who were born in this house and all who were bought with his money every male among the men of abraham's house and circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very same day as god had said to him abraham was 99 years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin and ishmael his son was 13 years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin that very same day abraham was circumcised and his son ishmael and all the men of his house born in the house or bought with money from a foreigner were circumcised with him the contrast between national greatness and covenant experience reveals a lot about what the covenant really entailed national greatness is also promised in genesis 21 13 and 18. genesis 21 18 new king james version yet i will also make a nation of the son of the bondwoman because he is your seed genesis 21 18 new king james version arise lift up the lad and hold him with your hand for i will make him a great nation 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. ishmael despite being circumcised according to god's mandate was not the covenant sign genesis 17 10 new king james version this is my covenant which you shall keep between me and you and your descendants after you every male child among you shall be circumcised abraham and sarah's treatment of ishmael regarded ishmael as the promised son of god even when god revealed that sarah will bear a son abraham was perplexed as to why this was required rather than having ishmael as hair genesis 17 18 new king james version and abraham said to god oh that ishmael might live before you even after isaac was born abraham treated ishmael with kindness and was saddened by sarah's wish to reject him sarah on the other hand saw ishmael as a danger to isaac's position in the family and sought to have him expelled genesis 21 new king james version and the lord visited sarah as he and said and the lord did for sarah as he had spoken for sarah conceived and bore abraham a son in his old age at the set time of which god had spoken to him and abraham called the name of his son who was born to him whom sarah bore to him isaac then abraham circumcised his son isaac when he was eight days old as god had commanded him now abraham was 100 years old when his son isaac was born to him and sarah said god has made me laugh and all who hear will laugh with me she also said who would have said to abraham that sarah would nurse children for i have borne him a son in his old age so the child grew and was weaned and abraham made a great feast on the same day that isaac was weaned and sarah saw the son of hagar the egyptian whom she had borne to abraham scoffing therefore she said to abraham cast out this bondwoman and her son for the son of this bondwoman shall not be here with my son namely with isaac and the matter was very displeasing in abraham's sight because of his son but god said to abraham do not let it be displeasing in your sight because of the lad or because of your bond woman whatever sarah has said to you listen to her voice for in isaac your seed shall be called yet i will also make a nation of the son of the bond woman because he is your seed so abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and skin of water and putting it on her shoulder he gave it and the boy to hagar and sent her away then she departed and wandered into the wilderness of birshaba and the water in the skin was used up and she placed the boy under one of the shrubs then she went and sat down across from him at a distance of about bow shot for she said to herself let me not see the death of the boy so she sat opposite him and lifted her voice and wept and god heard the voice of the lad and the angel of god called to hagar out of heaven and said to her what ails you hagar fear not for god has heard the voice of the lad where he is arise lift up the lad and hold him with your hand for i will make him a great nation then god opened her eyes and she saw a well of water and she went and filled the skin with water and gave the lad a drink so god was with the lad and he grew and dwelt in the wilderness and became an archer he dwelt in the wilderness of paran and his mother took a wife for him from the land of egypt and it came to pass at that time that abimelech and faicol the commander of his army spoke to abraham saying god is with you in all that you do now therefore swear to me by god that you will not deal falsely with me with my offspring or with my posterity but that according to the kindness that i have done to you you will do to me and to the land in which you have dwelt and abraham said i will swear then abraham rebuked abimelech because of a well of water which abimelech servants had seized and abhimalek said i do not know who has done this thing you did not tell me nor had i heard of it until today so abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to abimelech and the two of them made a covenant and abraham set seven new limbs of the flock by themselves then abu malek asked abraham what is the meaning of these seven eu lambs which you have set by themselves and he said you will take these seven you lambs from my hand that they may be my witness that i have dug this well therefore he called that place beersheba because the two of them swore an oath there thus they made a covenant at beer shabbat so abhimalek rose with faikol the commander of this army and they returned to the land of philistines then abraham planted a tamarisk tree in beer shabbat and there called on the name of the lord the everlasting god and abraham stayed in the land of the philistines many days this request to expel the handmaid and her son seemed to violate every norm of ancient law children of handmaids could be demoted but not cast out if there was a good reason the fact that abraham was against such a treatment and followed only 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 mizuki in genesis 21 9 genesis 21 9 new king james version and sarah saw the son of hagar the egyptian whom she had born to abraham scoffing whether it represents ishmael is mocking isaac or playing with isaac it's questionable if the word ever meant to mock deride in the old testament judges 16 25 new king james version so it happened when their hearts were merry that they said call for samson that he may perform for us so they called for samson from the prison and he performed for them and they stationed him between the pillars therefore sarah objected to ishmael as a competitor of isaac rather than for any specific deed he had taken purpose of the ishmael sequence in genesis the author of genesis provides the ishmael's story largely to contrast isaac and ishmael not as individuals but as illustrations of god's anti-work the argument is that when god fulfilled his promises to abraham he was not restricted by the natural and ordinary i.e the flesh 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 his descendants the descendants of ishmael are given identically in two passages genesis and one chronicles genesis 25 12 16 new king james version now this is the genealogy of ishmael abraham's son whom hagar the egyptian sarah's maidservant bore to abraham and these were the names of the sons of ishmael by their names according to their generations the firstborn of ishmael nibajoth then kedar adbil meebsam mishma duma masa hadar teema jatur nafish and kadema these were the sons of ishmael and these were their names by their towns and their settlements twelve princes according to their nations one chronicles 1 29 31 new king james version these are their genealogies the firstborn of ishmael was nabajoth then kadar adibil nibzam nishma duma masa haddad tima jatur nafish and kadima these were the sons of ishmael what is most surprising is that there were 12 sons counted just as jacob had 12 sons counted this is to be compared to nahora's 12 sons and esau's 12 sons genesis 22 21 24 new king james version huss his firstborn was his brother kimwell the father of haram jazid khazu pildash deedlaf and bethwell begot rebecca these eight milka bore to nahor abraham's brother his concubine whose name was rumah also bortiba gaham thahash and makha princes ruled over the ishmaelites genesis 25 16 new king james version these were the sons of ishmael and these were their names by their towns and their settlements twelve princes according to their nations these ishmaelites tribes settled in the general area where their ancestors grew up namely the peran wilderness genesis 25 18 describes this region as from javila to shar which is opposite egypt in the direction of ashiriya some of his descendants names appear as tribes in assyrian chronicles genesis 25 18 new king james version they dwelt from havilah as far as sure which is east of egypt as you go toward assyria he died in the presence of all his brethren in accordance with god's statements concerning ishmael the ishmaelites are sometimes shown as hostile to the israelis 1 chronicles 5 19 new king james version they made war with the hagrids jatur nafish and nodab genesis 16 12 new king james version he shall be a wild man his hand shall be against every man and every man's hand against him and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren finally the ishmaelites are coupled with immediates some of the descendants of katura in some passages thus suggesting an overlapping of the two terms the term ishmaelite is applied to the medianates and the same group receives both names in genesis 37 25 28 where joseph's brothers sold him to a caravan of traitors and in genesis 37 36 39 1 where joseph is sold to potiphar in egypt there is no need to distinguish between immediate and an ishmael elite account for joseph selling judges 8 24 new king james version then gideon said to them i would like to make a request to you that each of you would give me the earrings from his plunder for they have gold earrings because they were ishmaelites genesis 37 29 28 knew king james version and they sat down to eat a meal then they lifted their eyes and looked and there was a company of ishmaelites coming from gilead with their camels bearing spices balm and mir on their way to carry them down to egypt so judah said to his brothers what prophet is there if we kill our brother and conceal his blood come and let us sell him to the ishmaelites and let not our hand be upon him for he is our brother and our flesh and his brothers listened then media neat traitors passed by so the brothers pulled joseph up and lifted him out of the pit and sold him to the ishmaelites for 20 shackles of silver and they took joseph to egypt genesis 37 36 new king james version now the median eats had sold him in egypt to potiphar an officer of pharaoh and captain of the guard genesis 39 1 new king james version now joseph had been taken down to egypt and potiphar an officer of pharaoh captain of the guard an egyptian bought him from the ishmael elites who had taken him down there the ishmael sequence is used by paul although he does not mention ishmael by name paul clearly bases his teaching in galatians 4 on the genesis chapters ishmael was born in the flesh and he persecuted him who was born in the spirit galatians 4 29 new king james version but as he was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the spirit even so it is now the fact that the next verse is a reference from genesis 21 10 shows that paul is thinking about the context when he makes the remark about ishmael persecuting isaac genesis 21 10 new king james version therefore she said to abraham cast out this bondwoman and her son for the son of this bondwoman shall not be here with my son namely with isaac

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Length: 25min 5sec (1505 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 10 2022