Ishmael: The Forgotten Son (Biblical Stories Explained)

usually within families the arrival of a second born switches up the dynamic in an irrevocable way especially for the firstborn naturally the second born accumulates much of the attention from its caregivers and the firstborn can find themselves pushed to the side or find themselves to be no longer the center of attention this toppling from this formal glory can cause the firstborn to cultivate feelings of inadequacy and in some cases the firstborn can be made to feel as if they are invisible and no one would know this better than a firstborn who pretty much became invisible

after the birth of their sibling of course i'm talking about the often forgotten son of abraham ishmael readers of the bible will know that ishmael was an underdog from the very beginning not only was he illegitimately conceived by a conspiring sarah who wanted a child so badly that she gave her husband permission to sleep with her handmaiden hagar but he was subsequently shunned by sarah when he was born whilst the bible makes little account of the relationship between ishmael and sarah we do know that she is responsible for him being cast out into the desert

after she perceived that he was mocking the newly born isaac his step-brother and the second born of abraham we see her animosity towards ishmael demonstrated quite explicitly where she insists upon abraham to get rid of that slave woman and her son for that woman's son would never share in the inheritance with my son isaac sarah shows no hesitation in disowning ishmael once she has a natural-born son of her own and through this we can see that ishmael becomes a victim of a grudge that he was not responsible for not only is he pushed to decide

when his younger brother is born he is taken to the extreme of total abandonment and banishment by the will of sarah this is one of the only times we see sarah even recognize ishmael in the bible in fact she doesn't even bring herself to refer to him by name but simply addresses him as her slave woman's son she refuses to take responsibility for him being born and much less identifies him as her own son like she originally intended instead she denounces him denies him of anything that he is owed as the son of abraham and

deems isaac the second born his superior in every way this also suggests that given the lack of interaction between sarah and ishmael that there was never a relationship between the two and that despite wanting a child so badly that she allowed abraham to impregnate hagar she regretted it afterwards and acted acrimoniously to all parties involved as if it was therefore in fact it appears clear that sarah had refused to adopt ishmael as her own as she promised but instead charged hagar with his upbringing and washed her hands of the endeavour entirely many see sarah's treatment

of ishmael and his mother hagar as contemptible the bible describes her as mistreating hagar once she has been impregnated by abraham telling us then sarah mistreated hagar so she fled from her while sarah tries to justify her actions by suggesting hagar had become haughty now that she was carrying abraham's child hagar's attempts to flee also suggest that the treatment she received was unfair sarah proves to be incapable of managing her own emotions in this part of the story where she proves to respond to the situation that she created with jealousy pride and resentment so much

so that she drives a pregnant woman to take her chances alone in the desert sarah can only blame herself for these circumstances after all no one asked hagar to sleep with abraham but sarah herself and sarah's resentment of the woman and the child growing within her came about because of sarah's own impatience in an effort to speed up the covenant made between god and abraham in this some see the very existence of ishmael as a punishment for sarah an eternal reminder that she had tried to play god in her schemes to have a child in

genesis 16 we even see her proclaim to know her god's plan and she certainly feels scorned by them leading her to take matters into her own hands saying to abraham the lord has kept me from having children go sleep with my slave perhaps i can build a family through her the dread anger and ill feeling that she experiences in this idea is because of her meddling with god's plan and is covenant with abraham and so ishmael becomes a manifestation of that a reminder of her own folly and arrogance but to others ishmael is more than

just a symbol for sarah's wrongs against god both he and his mother are important in our figures that they warrant a visit from one of god's angels after hagar has fled to the desert the angel comforts her here after sarah's mistreatment of her and whilst he counsels her to return to sarah he also adds that he will see to it that her descendants are increased and would be so many that they would be too numerous to count go back to your mistress and submit to her i will increase your descendants so much that they will

be too numerous to count despite being born illegitimately ishmael is suggested here to be the father of many nations something later confirmed by god in the covenant with abraham and we learn here that the story of ishmael is far from over despite the shunning by sarah we can also gather from the angels prophecy in genesis 16 that ishmael was likely always going to live a hard life in comparison to that of his brother isaac ishmael from the very beginning was dealt a rough hand because of sarah's despising of him and what he represented the result

of a tryst between her husband and her handmaiden even though this was entirely organized by her the angel who speaks to hagar in the desert recognizes the hardships that ishmael will face and provides a detailed prophecy for the boy saying you are now pregnant and you will give birth to a son you shall name him ishmael for the lord has heard of your misery he will be a wild donkey of a man his hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand against him and he will live in hostility to all of his brothers here the

angel gives ishmael his name a significant feat considering that he is the first character in the bible to be bestowed a name before he was born this would suggest that despite sarah's condemning of him and despite the bible's minimal mention of him thereafter god did have a plan for him and all of his descendants as we see later on in various other stories of the bible the biblical god and the angels do not give names to people who do not have an imperative role later on of course it is believed that ishmael's importance is the

belief that he becomes the progenitor of the arabian people and the ancestor of islam it could also be argued that god wanted for this to be the case and intended for ishmael and his descendants to flourish as they did for he could have allowed hagar to die in the wilderness when ishmael was still in the womb instead he sends an angel to council hagar back into sarah's household so as to ensure both her survival and the survival of ishmael even the name ishmael has some noteworthy origins having existed in various ancient semitic cultures as well

as maintaining babylonian roots in these times it would be known as ishmael meaning god has hearkened or in the case of the later ishmael god will hear which suggests that even through his questionable conceivement and later banishment god was with ishmael for he was in essence thoughtless we also see the angel refer to ishmael as being wild furthermore suggesting that ishmael's life would not be easy and potentially foreshadows the fact that he and hagar would be booted out into the wilderness where it would be considerably more challenging to raise him there's also the mention that

his hand would be against every man and that every man's hand would be against him once more foretelling the hardships that ishmael would have in his life outside of abraham's house there is a declaration here by the angel that ishmael would have difficulty forming relationships with people and that perhaps he would have difficulty in establishing trust with people which is hardly a surprise when you consider the mistreatment that he received another idea here is that ishmael would be at odds with his fellow man perhaps even his brother isaac and there's a foreshadowing here of the

tensions between the two peoples that would follow after ishmael and isaac respectively yet despite this statement by the angel that ishmael would live in hostility he is not forsaken for we learn in genesis 17 that ishmael is in fact going to be blessed as god tells abraham and as for ishmael i have heard you i will surely bless him i will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers he will be the father of 12 rulers and i will make him into a great nation as the seed of abraham ishmael was destined to inherit

some form of greatness either way and it is perhaps because of god's promises to abraham why ishmael is to be as fruitful and successful as he is however god also makes it clear to abraham that the covenant which he makes is for isaac and not ishmael possibly reflecting the reality that ishmael was not god's original intention but instead a result of sarah's impatience in this idea god had always planned for isaac to be the one to inherit abraham's greatness but that the contingency that was ishmael made the affair far more complicated than it needed to

be still god recognizes that this was never ishmael's fault for he never asked to be born and some might say god is therefore merciful in making ishmael a great nation nonetheless we also learn that as a son of abraham ishmael is made of the covenant nonetheless for abraham has been circumcised in genesis 17. we are told on that very day abraham took his son ishmael and all those born in his household or bought with his money every male in his household and circumcised them as god told him but things take a turn for the worst

in genesis 21 once isaac is born and ishmael is ultimately cast away by a bitter sarah now that she has her precious son born of her organically and without the need for a surrogate sarah admonishes ishmael after having seen him tease the baby isaac we are told the child grew and was weaned and on the day isaac was weaned abraham held a great feast but sarah saw that the son whom hagar the egyptian had born to abraham was mocking and she said to abraham get rid of that slave woman and her son for that woman's

son we will never share in the inheritance with my son isaac some argue that sarah's reaction is justified after having seen ishmael scoff at isaac and the volume of which he was being celebrated with some say sarah acted from a position of maternal instinct and chose to defend her child from what she perceived as a threat in the form of the older ishmael therefore her banishment of him was not out of spite but out of protection for isaac but others see sarah's banishment of ishmael as more of a selfish need to remove all traces of

her husband's affair and to absolve herself of having orchestrated the endeavour altogether no longer does she wish to be reminded of her own arrogance in assuming god's plan and so with the acquiescence of her husband ishmael is sent away there's also an idea here that this is less of a banishment and more of a freeing hagar was a slave after all but upon being told to leave abraham's house she becomes a free woman it's also possible that hagar and ishmael did not see this as a punishment but after their harsh treatment they wanted to leave

and favor their chances out in the wild than in abraham's house the bible concludes ishmael's ark when he and his mother are in the wilderness or besheba where the water they were given had run out and they were about to perish but again we see god favor ishmael for the bible tells us he hears ishmael crying and thus sends an angel to help him we are told god heard the boy crying and the angel of god called to hagar from heaven and said to her what is the matter hagar do not be afraid god has

heard the boy crying as he lies there lift the boy up and take him by the hand for i will make him into a great nation some have noted that god's kindness here is another demonstration of how he has not forsaken ishmael and though he had been brought into this world through an unbecoming set of circumstances he was still a seed of abraham and therefore would be blessed some have also interpreted ishmael's crying as a form of prayer itself showing us not only the mercy of god but the continued relationship between ishmael and god that

the bible never really talks about yet again god promises here that he will turn ishmael into a great nation furthermore establishing his allegiance with ishmael and his wishes for him to do well the great nation he speaks of these descendants of ishmael were as affirmations thought to be the arabians the bible makes no mention of ishmael's future endeavors beyond this point however but instead summarizes ishmael's fate in a very brief statement in genesis 21 saying god was with the boy as he grew up he lived in the desert and became an archer while he was

living in the desert of paran his mother got a wife for him from egypt whilst animosity may have brewed thereafter between ishmael and isaac's people we do learn in genesis 25 that ishmael and isaac came together in peace to bury abraham after his death beyond this ishmael's endeavors as a great nation within the bible are grossly overlooked you may remember in genesis 17 that god declares to abraham that he would make ishmael the father of 12 rulers and that he would be made into a great nation it is understood that with this egyptian wife of

his ishmael would conceive twelve sons perhaps these twelve rulers who would each become tribal chiefs in the regions from hervilla to shir those being from assyria to the border of egypt amongst these twelve sons perhaps one of the most notable was kedar the father of the kadarites who were a northern arabian tribe that controlled the area between the persian gulf and the sinai peninsula going by tradition kadar was the ancestor of the koresh tribe a tribe which inhabited the land of mecca and also a tribe which contained the hashemite clan that which the prophet muhammad

of islam was born to amongst these sons was also born a daughter named mahalith or bessemeth and she would become the third wife of esau rabbinical commentators meanwhile in some jewish beliefs suggests that hagar was the pharaoh's daughter making ishmael the pharaoh's grandson and therefore egyptian royalty himself through this the egyptian woman that hagar found for ishmael to marry would likely have been someone of high nobility and political influence which could warrant how all of ishmael's sons became rulers in their respective regions free islamic arabian poetry makes reference to ishmael and his father abraham the

poet maya ibn abi as salt takes note of abraham's separation anxiety once ishmael is banished and that he could not bear the idea that ishmael would be surrounded by foes perhaps a nod to the declaration by the angel in genesis 16 that ishmael's hand would be against everyone and everyone's hand would be against him another pre-islamic figure in zaid ibn amir was noted to have refused adultery and preached of the importance of monotheism believing that this was the right way and the original way according to the father of the arabians himself in ishmael there also

existed tribes of central west arabia which called themselves the people of abraham and the offspring of ishmael a phrase also used in an effort to establish reconciliation between other tribes in the area in other jewish beliefs israel is associated with a more wicked nature and was thought to have prey to idols when he believed he was alone others give him an edge of promiscuity such as the samaritan torah which described ishmael not as a wild man but a fertile man this is echoed in certain jewish traditions where ishmael was thought to have taken two wives

with one being known as aisha the name aisha would also become an islamic tradition for the name of the prophet muhammad's wife furthermore establishing a sort of representation of the muslim world through ishmael amongst islamic beliefs ishmael is recognized as an important prophet and something of a patriarch of islam itself or an ancestor of several prominent arabian tribes and thus many a great nations as the biblical god had foreseen is also considered to be the ancestor of the prophet muhammad and in some cases the prophet is a direct descendant in the quran we see ishmael

mentioned several times usually alongside other patriarchs and prophets of the ancient times he is described here amongst other prophets as the patiently enduring and righteous whom god caused to enter into his mercy we also learned from this text that ishmael stands alongside his father abraham in mecca in an attempt to establish the kobar and make it a place of monotheistic pilgrimage all that abraham and ishmael rebuilt it on the old foundations that were built by adam abraham also appears to be far more appreciative of ishmael here going on to thank god for granting him a

son like ishmael it is here by the kabar that ishmael and his mother hagar are thought to be buried under an area demarcated by a semi-circular wall known as the hijab ishmael wall other islamic beliefs paint more of a picture between the relationship of ishmael and his father abraham and whilst the story links closely with that of the account in the old testament we see that sarah isn't the cause for ishmael and hagar's banishment instead it is god who tells abraham to take hagar and ishmael to the foundations of where the khobar would stand and

to leave them there when hagar asked abraham why he was leaving them there abraham walked away in silence and proceeded to ignore her it was only when higgar asked if this was god's will did abraham confirm anything hagar believed that if this was the case then god would provide and did not appear to protest or dispute abraham's decision in the desert the baby ishmael cried with thirst for water and so hagar placed him in the shade under a bush and went off in search of said water but her search was futile like in the old

testament both baby and mother cried and it would appear that in this version as well god hears their suffering and sends an angel to comfort them the angel instructs hagar to lift ishmael from the ground and when she does she finds that ishmael had scratched the ground with his foot allowing for a spring of water to bubble up to the surface hagar quickly cultivated a well from the ground which would go on to form the zamzam well a holy place in islam found east of the kabar this area this spring in particular would become well

known to caravans that traveled through arabia which hagar would negotiate deals with for supplies in exchange for water it is believed that from her humble trade the stage for the city of mecca was set for it would become a hub for travellers and traders where many would stay for the convenience of water goods and sanctuary today in order to commemorate the blessing of the well that god had given hagar and ishmael muslims make trips between the safa and mawa hills retracing the steps that hagar would have taken in her search for water we are also

told that abraham returned to visit ishmael throughout his life unlike in the old testament where he appears to neglect ishmael entirely in favor of isaac according to some islamic traditions there exists one story where abraham had come to visit ishmael only to find his son was not there instead he found ishmael's wife but did not reveal that he was his father ishmael's wife insisted upon him to stay and wait for ishmael's return but abraham decided to leave beforehand and despite his daughter-in-law's protests abraham did not listen and instead gave her a message to give to

his son the message was simple change your threshold when ishmael returned his wife gave him the news that a man had come to visit him and that he gave the vague message change your threshold ishmael knew immediately that it had been his father and understood the words to mean divorce your wife and find a better one which ishmael did sometime after this happened abraham visited ishmael again but once more his son was out here abraham encountered ishmael's new wife and found her to be more faithful to god and more content with her husband for some

reason abraham yet again chose to leave before ishmael had come home but asked his wife to give him the message keep your threshold when ishmael returned that night his wife informed him that there had been a visitor and that he had told him to keep his threshold ishmael told his wife of who that man was and that the message was his father's approval of their marriage for she was a woman who was content in both him and god but let me know your thoughts about the character of ishmael in the comments below and as always

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