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Bible Dictionaries
Ishmael
American Tract Society Bible Dictionary
or 1. Genesis 16:1-16 21:1-34 , son of Abraham and Hagar, B. C. 1910. He was at first regarded as "the son of the promise;" but after the birth and weaning of Isaac he was driven from his father's house, at the age of about seventeen, and took with his mother the way to Egypt her native land. Overcome with heat and thirst, and then miraculously relieved, he remained in the wilderness of Paran, took a wife from Egypt, and was the father of twelve sons, heads of Arab tribes. He seems to have become on friendly terms with Isaac, and to have attended at the bedside of their dying father. At his own death, he was one hundred and thirty-seven years old, Genesis 25:9,17 .
The Ishmaelites, his posterity, were said, in the days of Moses, to dwell "from Havilah unto Shur that is before Egypt," that is, in the northwestern part of Arabia. See HAVILAH 2. Subsequently they, with the descendants of Joktan, the fourth from Shem, Genesis 10:26-29 , and Jokshan, the son of Abraham by Keturah, Genesis 25:3 , and perhaps also of some of the brethren of Joktan and Jokshan, occupied the whole peninsula of Arabia. See Genesis 17:16 . The prediction also in Genesis 16:12 , has been fully verified in their history. Located near their "brethren" the Jews, they have always led a roving, wild, and predatory life. To a great degree unchanged, they are to this day the untamed though tributary masters of the desert. See MIDIANITES .
2. A prince of Judah, who fled to the Ammonites when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Chaldeans. Soon after, he returned and assassinated Gedaliah the governor and many others; but was obliged to flee for his life, Jeremiah 40:1-41:18 .
These files are public domain and are a derivative of the topics are from American Tract Society Bible Dictionary published in 1859.
Rand, W. W. Entry for 'Ishmael'. American Tract Society Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/ats/i/ishmael.html. 1859.
