Ishmael, Son of Abraham: Twelve Princes and a Life Mostly Unspoken

Who Ishmael Was

Ishmael belongs to the era of the patriarchs, the son of Abraham by Hagar (Genesis 16:15-16; Genesis 25:12). By the reckoning of Ussher, Annals of the World (1650), he was born 1910 BC and died 1773 BC (137 years). His name appears across twenty-seven verses in five books: Genesis, 1 Chronicles, Judges, Psalms and 2 Samuel, with the first mention at Genesis 16:11 and the last in Psalms. He is a man with a full genealogy and almost no recorded speech, a son of the household who stands beside his brother Isaac in the register of Abraham's sons (1 Chronicles 1:28).

Born to Hagar in Abram's House

The name is spoken before the child is (Genesis 16:11). Then the birth itself: "Hagar bore a son for Abram. Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram" (Genesis 16:15-16). Notice how the narrator will not let the reader forget who carried this child and who fathered him. Three times in two verses the text ties Hagar and Abram together over this boy. Ishmael is Abram's son by name and by the father's own naming, and the father's age is set down as carefully as any date in the chapter.

Genesis 25:12 says it again for the record, and adds who Hagar was: "Now this is the history of the generations of Ishmael, Abraham's son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah's servant, bore to Abraham."

Circumcised with His Father

Abraham speaks concerning Ishmael in Genesis 17:18, and a further word about him follows in Genesis 17:20. Then comes the day itself in Genesis 17:23, and the detail the text preserves: "Ishmael, his son, was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. In the same day both Abraham and Ishmael, his son, were circumcised" (Genesis 17:25-26). Father and son, one day, one sign in the flesh. Whatever else Genesis will say about the two lines that come from Abraham, it says first that Ishmael carried the mark, and that he was old enough to know exactly what was being done to him.

Ishmael appears again at the burial of his father in Genesis 25:9, beside Isaac.

Twelve Princes

The genealogy is given twice, at Genesis 25:13 and 1 Chronicles 1:28-29 with 1 Chronicles 1:31: "The sons of Abraham: Isaac and Ishmael. These are their generations: the firstborn of Ishmael, Nebaioth; then Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam,". The full list of sons runs Nebaioth, Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish and Kedemah. A daughter, Mahalath, is named at Genesis 28:9, and a daughter of Ishmael is mentioned again at Genesis 36:3.

The summary is striking: "These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names, by their villages, and by their encampments: twelve princes, according to their nations. These are the years of the life of Ishmael: one hundred thirty-seven years. He gave up his spirit and died, and was gathered to his people" (Genesis 25:16-17). Twelve princes, villages and encampments, and a death notice with the same dignity Genesis gives to the fathers before him.

The Ishmaelites in the Later Books

His name outlives him as the name of a people. Traders appear in Genesis 37:25, and then the decision is taken: "Come, and let's sell him to the Ishmaelites, and not let our hand be on him; for he is our brother, our flesh." His brothers listened to him. Midianites who were merchants passed by, and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. The merchants brought Joseph into Egypt" (Genesis 37:27-28). Genesis 39:1 continues that thread. The Ishmaelites are named again in Judges 8:24 and Psalms 83:6, and men called Ishmaelite appear in 2 Samuel 17:25, 1 Chronicles 2:17 and 1 Chronicles 27:30. These are references, not scenes; the record carries the mentions without further narrative.

Where the Failures Are

Here honesty requires restraint. The passages before us record no sin of Ishmael's own. He is named, circumcised, fathers twelve princes, and dies. The one dark scene in which his name appears is a sin committed by others: brothers who sold their own flesh, and the Ishmaelites who were the buyers carrying a trafficked young man down into Egypt (Genesis 37:27-28; Genesis 39:1). That is what the text says, and no more. Restraint cuts both ways: we may not invent virtues for him either.

What We Do Not Know

We are told the names of his twelve sons and of Mahalath, but not the name of any wife. We are given his age at circumcision (Genesis 17:25) and his age at death (Genesis 25:17), with almost nothing in between. We know his encampments existed (Genesis 25:16) without being told where he lived out those years. What survives is a father, a mother, a mark in the flesh, a dozen princes and a number of years, and the man himself largely unspoken.

No New Testament passages are listed for him in this study, so no line is drawn beyond the Hebrew Scriptures here. What stands is the plain testimony of Genesis and 1 Chronicles: Abraham had a son by Hagar the Egyptian, that son bore the sign in his flesh on the same day as his father, and his years and his sons were counted and written down.