Ishmael

Abraham’s first son, born of Hagar. Hagar was the Egyptian servant of Sarah (Abraham's wife). Sarah chose Hagar to have a child with Abraham.

God promised to make a great nation of Abraham, who did not have any children (Genesis 12:2). God promised him that his son would be his heir (15:4). But when Sarah was past 75 years old and had still not had any children, she followed a custom of that time and gave her servant Hagar to Abraham as a concubine. This was meant to give Sarah a child through Hagar (16:1–2).

After Hagar became pregnant, she began to treat Sarah with disrespect. Sarah then treated Hagar harshly, causing her to run away. An angel found Hagar and told her to return. The angel also promised her a son, telling her to name him Ishmael, which means "God hears" (16:9–11). The boy was born near Hebron when Abraham was 86 years old (13:18; 16:16).

Abraham and Sarah first thought Ishmael was the son God had promised them (17:17; 18:12). When God later announced that Sarah would have her own son named Isaac, Abraham even asked God to accept Ishmael instead (17:18). When Ishmael was 13, he was circumcised as a witness of God’s covenant with Abraham (17:9–14, 22–27). The Lord promised to make Ishmael the father of 12 princes, from which would come a great nation. But the covenant (God's special agreement with Abraham) was to be established with Isaac (17:20–21).

Problems began when Isaac was weaned at about three years of age. When Sarah saw Ishmael mocking her son Isaac, she decided that the son of a slave woman should not be heir with her son Isaac. She demanded that Ishmael and Hagar be sent away. Though this upset Abraham, God told him to do what Sarah asked. Abraham gave them some food and water and sent them away. It was then clear to Abraham that Isaac, not Ishmael, was the son of God’s promise.

Hagar survived in the wilderness with the help of an angel. Ishmael became a hunter of wild animals and settled in the wilderness of Paran. He married an Egyptian woman (21:20–21). There is not much more written about him, except that years later he helped bury Abraham (25:9–10). He also gave his daughter Mahalath in marriage (28:9). Ishmael died at the age of 137 (25:17). The names of his 12 sons and their settlements are recorded in Genesis 25:13–16. In later history, a caravan of Ishmaelite traders (also called Midianites, compare Judges 8:22–24) bought Joseph from his brothers and sold him in Egypt (Genesis 37:25–28; 39:1).

Although Isaac received God's special promises instead of Ishmael, this did not mean God rejected Ishmael. Abraham and Sarah first thought too highly of Ishmael's place in God's plan, but later they wrongly tried to exclude him completely.

In the New Testament, Paul uses the story of Ishmael and Hagar to teach the Galatians that the law should not be seen as a burden (Galatians 4:22). He says that those who trust the law of Moses, instead of trusting in God’s promises, do not inherit the kingdom of God. Ishmael, the son of the slave woman (here a symbol of the law), did not receive inheritance with the son of the free woman (verse 30).

A member of the royal family of King Zedekiah, through his father Nethaniah and grandfather Elishama (2 Kings 25:25). This story takes place during the time when Babylon controlled Judah. The Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar had put a man named Gedaliah in charge as governor in the city of Mizpah.

Baalis, the king of the Ammonites, convinced Ishmael to kill Gedaliah. Before this happened, a man named Johanan warned Gedaliah about the plot to kill him. Johanan even asked permission to kill Ishmael first to protect Gedaliah, but Gedaliah refused to believe the warning (Jeremiah 40:14–16).

Ishmael came to Mizpah with ten men. While they were eating a meal with Gedaliah, they killed him and the Babylonian soldiers who were with him. The next day, a group of 80 religious pilgrims was traveling from the north to worship at the temple in Jerusalem. Ishmael invited them into Mizpah and then killed 70 of them. He let ten of them live because they offered to give him their hidden food supplies. Ishmael hid all the dead bodies in a large cistern (underground water storage).

After this, Ishmael took everyone else in Mizpah as prisoners, including the prophet Jeremiah and some women from the royal family. He started taking them toward the land of the Ammonites. However, Johanan gathered some soldiers and caught up with Ishmael at a place called Gibeon. Johanan rescued all the prisoners, but Ishmael and his men escaped to Ammonite territory (Jeremiah 41).

The son of Azel, a Benjamite of the family of Saul (1 Chronicles 8:38; 9:44).

The father of Zebadiah, the governor of the house of Judah under Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicles 19:11).

The son of Jehohanan. He was one of the commanders who allied with Jehoiada the priest to make Joash king (while he was still a child) and end the reign of Athaliah (2 Chronicles 23:1).

The son of Pashhur, and one of the priests who divorced his foreign wives during Ezra’s reforms (Ezra 10:22).