[First posted in 2014; revived for our series on “The Outsiders”/”the Other”/the “UNchosen”.    Who?   Those who were not among the “chosen” or specifically the line of Abraham-Isaac-Jacob but were just as loved by the Creator/Revelator.  Related posts:

• The UNchosen – Esau/Edom – A Second Look
• The UNchosen: What if you were a gentile slave in Egypt?
• The UNchosen – My servant Caleb – a different spirit

 

 We should understand “choosing” a people to simply mean assigning them the serious responsibility of making Him known to all humanity as custodians of His instructions for living, His guidelines for life, His commandments for those in community.  This “choosing” God included in His instructions —how the ‘outsiders’ among His ‘chosen’  are to be treated —with conscious consideration and caring for “the other” among them, i.e., the neighbor, the stranger, anyone else who is not ‘you’!  

 

Hear O Yisrael, indeed, thank you for recording the original Sinai Revelation in your unadulterated sacred scriptures, virtually your history.  We learn about outsiders like us, Sinaites, among them Caleb, Ysmael, Ruth, the mixed multitude who left Egypt on your Exodus and stood with you at Sinai.  

 

For a related post, read; 

• Genesis/Bereshith 17: “as for Yishmael, I hearken to you . . .but my covenant I will establish with Yitzhak”

—Admin1]

 

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Students of literature will connect this article’s title with the opening line spoken by the narrative-voice in Herman Melville’s novel Moby Dick. For a short-cut and introduction to this classic work and its fascinating characters with biblical names and implications, here are articles to check out:

 

• Hebraic and Biblical Elements in Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick

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Sorry for that diversion, this post is about the Ishmael/Yishmael of Genesis/Bereshith, firstborn of Abraham but not with Sara.  

 

 

 Ten years after living in Canaan, ‘the tired-of-waiting-for-promised-son’ and barren Sara made a proposal to Abram he could have refused . . . but did not:   

 

EF/Genesis 16:2

Sara said to Avram:  

Now here, YHVH has obstructed me from bearing;

pray come in to my maid,

perhaps I may be built-up-with-sons through her!   

 

Despite Sara’s impatience and lack of faith who, in fact at first found the promise of a son through her in her old age laughable, what would and should we expect of Abraham?  

 

• Had Abraham been more trusting in YHWH’s promise of an heir through Sara, there would be no Ishmael.  
• But, alas,  the flesh is obviously weak: 

Avram hearkened to Sara’s voice:

• The wording suggests Hagar was given by Sara to Abraham as a wife/to be his wife, though not displacing Sara herself as wife no. 1: 

Genesis 16:3  

Sara, Avram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian-woman, her maid, at the end of ten years of Avram’s being settled in the land of Canaan,

and gave her to her husband Avram as a wife for him.  

 

The point?  Firstborn Ishmael who is 13 years older than Isaac had a privileged status despite the circumstances surrounding his conception and birth, and despite Sara/Sarah’s later antipathy toward him and his mother Hagar. He was a favored only son for a good 13 years, loved and raised by Abraham. Surely, Abraham would have passed on some values, if not his faith to this son. 

Consider the following: Before Ishmael was even conceived, when Hagar was dealt with harshly by Sara and sent away, this much was prophesied to Hagar about him:

Genesis/Bereshith 16:

10  And YHVH’S messenger said to her:

I will make your seed many, yes, many, it will be too many to count! 

11  And YHVH’S messenger said to her:

Here, you are pregnant,

you will bear a son; call his name: Yishmael/God Hearkens,

for God has hearkened to your being afflicted. 

12 He shall be a wild-ass of a man,

his hand against all, hand of all against him,

yet in the presence of all his brothers shall he dwell. 

13 Now she called the name of YHVH, the one who was speaking to her:

You God of Seeing! 

For she said:

Have I actually gone on seeing here after his seeing me? 

14 Therefore the well was called:

Well of the Living-one Who-Sees-Me.

Here, it is between Kadesh and Bered. 

15 Hagar bore Avram a son, and Avram called the name of the son whom Hagar bore: Yishmael.

 

What does it mean to be a “wild ass of a man”?  In modern lingo, being called an “ass” is hardly a compliment.  Animal metaphor is a good literary device, saves the narrator from elaborating on a person’s character; unfortunately we readers are not as familiar with animals as much as the original hearers were. Please don’t miss reading an illuminating article about the peculiar nature of this particular animal used to describe Ishmael in  [http://www.zoocreation.com/biblespecies/wildass.html].

 

The prophesied ‘character’ of Ishmael includes further his hand against all, hand of all against him.  That sounds much like a major world monotheistic religion that is claimed to be rooted to Yishmael and yet it was really started by a ‘prophet’ who lived in the 6th century.  

 

Father of the Arabs, perhaps:  “and over all his brothers shall he dwell”.

When Abraham expressed to YHWH at the giving of the covenant of circumcision, Genesis 17:18 Avraham said to God: If only Yishmael might live in your presence! —we can see how Abraham truly felt about this firstborn son, for Yishmael is truly the firstborn from Abraham, even if he is not the promised son through Sara. Like Esau, Yishmael sometimes gets portrayed like a villain, and pitted against the promised line of people that would issue from Yaacov/Jacob.

 

The ever gracious YHWH responded favorably, is He just or what? Despite humanity’s disobedience of His expressed instructions, the child here — Yishmael—is given an inheritance almost equal to Yitzhak.

 

Genesis/Bereshith 17

21  And as for Yishmael, I hearken to you:

Here, I will make him blessed, I will make him bear fruit, I will make him many, exceedingly, exceedingly—

he will beget twelve (tribal) leaders, and I will make a great nation of him. 

21 But my covenant I will establish with Yitzhak, whom Sara will bear to you at this set-time, another year hence.

22 When he had finished speaking with Avraham,

God went up, from beside Avraham. 

23 Avraham took Yishmael his son and all those born in his house and all those bought with his money,

all the males among Avraham’s household people,

and circumcised the flesh of their foreskins on that same day,

as God had spoken to him. 24 Avraham was ninety-nine years old when he had the flesh of his foreskin circumcised,

25 and Yishmael his son was thirteen years old when he had the flesh of his foreskin circumcised. 

26 On that same day

were circumcised Avraham and Yishmael his son.

 27 and all his household people, whether house-born or money-bought from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.

 

A blessed firstborn just like Isaac; simply because he’s from Abraham . . . but not the promised heir.

 

And so he and his mother are sent away, again at Sarah’s instigation after Isaac was born.  These few verses reveal much if carefully read:

 

  For one, Abraham is a bit disappointing, or admirable, for heeding the voice of his wife Sara . . . again, for the third time!  What are we to think of him, the father of all nations?  Caught between wife number one and mother of his FIRSTBORN son whom he dearly loves.  Perhaps he realizes this is the consequence of giving in to the first two times instead of standing his ground on what God had promised him from the very beginning, deviating from that plan to cooperate with a human diversion.  Who knows, scripture does not elaborate, so perhaps neither should we.  

 

Secondly there’s Sara — she’s not coming off as an admirable woman so far but admittedly, she’s behaving consistently, protective of her and her cherished son’s interest.

 

Thirdly there’s poor Hagar; elevated then degraded who loves and worries about her son just like any mother. Sometimes we forget that she hears voices from ‘up there’ whether it is a spiritual messenger or God Himself.  

 

But let us not forget this article is about Yishmael, who never asked to be born but is a victim of a circumstances, none of which was his doing.  And perhaps that is why the gracious God does bless him after all!

 

Genesis/Bereshith 21

9 Once Sara saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian-woman, whom she had borne to Avraham, laughing . . .

10 She said to Avraham:  

Drive out this slave-woman and her son,

for the son of this slave-woman shall not share-inheritance with my son, with Yitzak!  

11 The matter was exceedingly bad in Avraham’s eyes because of his son.  

12 But God said to Avraham:  

Do not let it be bad in your eyes concerning the lad and concerning your slave-woman;

in all that Sara says to you, 

hearken to her voice,

for it is through Yitzhak that seed will be called by your (name).

13   But also the son of the slave-woman—a nation will I make of him,

for he too is your seed.  

14  Avraham started-early in the morning,

he took some bread and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar—placing them upon her shoulder–together with the child and sent her away.  

 

She went off and roamed in the wilderness of Be’er-Sheva.  

15  And when the water in the skin was at an end, she cast the child under one of the bushes,

16 and went and sat by herself, at-a-distance, as far away as a bowshot,

for she said to herself:

Let me not see the child die!  

So she sat at-a-distance, and lifted up her voice and wept.  

17  But God heard the voice of the lad,

God’s messenger called to Hagar from heaven and said to her:

What is (the matter) with you, Hagar?  Do not be afraid,

for God has heard the voice of the lad there where he is.

18 Arise, lift up the lad and grasp him with your hand, for a great nation will I make of him!  

19 God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; she want, filled the skin with water, and gave the lad to drink.  

20  And God was with the lad as he grew up,

he settled int he wilderness, and became an archer, a bowman.  

21  He settled in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took him a wife from the land of Egypt.

 

For the descendants of Yishmael, here’s a genealogy:

 

Genesis/Bereshith 25

 

12  Now these are the begettings of Yishmael son of Avraham, whom Hagar the Egyptian-woman, Sara’s maid, bore to Avraham.

13  And these are the names of the sons of Yishmael, by their names after (the order of) their begettings:  

14 Yishmael’s firstborn, nevayot; and Kedar, Adve’el, Mivsam, Mishma, Duma, Massa,

15  Hadad and Teima, Yetur, Nafish and Kedma.  

16  These are the sons of Yishmael, these their names, in their villages and in their corrals,

twelve leaders for their tribes.  

17  And these are the years of the life of Yishmael: a hundred years and thirty years and seven years, then he expired.

He died and was gathered to his kinspeople.  

18  And they dwelt from Havila to Shur, which faces Egpt, back to where you come toward Assyria;

in the presence of all his brothers did (his inheritance) fall.

 

The next mention of Ishmael would be at the burial of Abraham where he and Isaac were both present.  Presumably, he had kept in touch with his father even if he and Hagar were expelled from the household. And the half brothers both pay respects to their common father.

 

The problem with some biblical narratives is—for those hungry for more details about figures like Ishmael who are on the periphery of the chosen lineage, there is not much more to wring out of the sparse verses devoted to them, and so we resort to seeking out extra-biblical sources.  Jewish commentators have much to say about Yishmael but they tend to go off-tangent and also tend to view Jew and non-Jew in black and white terms;  Yishmael and everyone else not in the promised lineage appear evil at most and a bad influence at the least.  But then this is the whole idea of separating a people to be distinct and peculiar and recognizable in the ways prescribed to them by Abraham’s God.

 

Christian commentaries are just as frustrating to read, knowing what we know now, but they can’t help it since their world view arises from their New Testament which is the real culprit.  It is said that three monotheistic religions can be traced back to Abraham: Judaism, Islam and Christianity. Islam is monotheistic but its founder is the prophet Muhammad who lived in 6 C.E. and founded the religion only then, so we have yet to make the connection with Yishmael. How Christianity figures monotheism in its trinitarian concept of Abraham’s God is a mystery even to its adherents.  

 

Google listings usually give us more than we’d care to know, including amusing input from weirdos; nevertheless ‘googling’ did yield one really good commentary published in 2006 by SUNY Press  (State University of New York in Albany) that puts Yishmael in proper perspective, together with other “marginalized men” in the bible (Esau); it is worth reading: [http://www.sunypress.edu/pdf/61278.pdf]. 

 

Descendants of Ishmael, the “Ishmaelites” are mentioned in the Joseph narratives but since there is confusion in the use of Ishmaelites and Medianites, here’s some clarification:  [http://carm.org/bible-difficulties/genesis-deuteronomy/who-purchased-joseph-ishmaelites-or-midianites]

 

Ishmaelites are no longer mentioned after the time of King David, having assimilated into other peoples according to the book of Jubilees. Some are shown in Judges as having become part of the Midianites. Others are mentioned living amongst the Israelites. The Hagarites split off as a separate group from the rest of the Ishmaelites and were conquered and assimilated by the Israelites during the reign of Saul.

 

The extra-biblical Book of Jubilees claims that the sons of Ishmael intermingled with the children of Keturah from Abraham and were called “Arabs” and Ishmaelites. 

 

Yishmael/”God Hearkens” – “Shema El” indeed —- for YHWH did hear his father’s and his mother’s pleas on his behalf as well as the “voice of the lad.”  In fact, God did not only hear but blessed Ishmael far beyond his parents (and even our) expectations, even though he was the offspring from Sara’s machination and Abram and Hagar’s accommodation.

 

What a great God YHWH is, praise Him for being gracious, loving, merciful, all wise, and just.

 

Thus says YHWH:

I will make a great nation of him . . .  

But my covenant I will establish with Yitzhak.

And it was so.