ISHMAELITES: WHO ARE THE DESCENDANTS OF ISHMAEL TODAY?

ISHMAELITES: WHO ARE THE DESCENDANTS OF ISHMAEL TODAY?

In biblical history, the Israelites, Ishmaelites, Midianites, and other ancient peoples have in common the fact that they trace their origin back to Abraham. However, despite this kinship, these peoples never experienced any kind of lasting peace. In fact, in various parts of the biblical record, these peoples are portrayed in a role of direct opposition to the children of Israel. An important aspect of understand this dynamic of Israelite history in the Bible is to understand who the Ishmaelites were, the people descended from Ishmael, Abraham’s eldest son. And that’s exactly what you’ll learn in this video. The first thing we need to understand is the origin of the Ishmaelites. When God called Abram, a man from the city of Ur in Mesopotamia, he made a promise to him about his offspring. This was somewhat complicated because at that time Abram was already an old man married to Sarai, a sterile and also very old woman. Moreover, the name Abram, which was later changed by God to Abraham, originally meant something like honored father or exalted father, perhaps in honor of one of his illustrious ancestors, perhaps Terah, Abram’s father. So, the irony was that the man whose name honored a paternal figure didn’t know what it was like to be a father. But even in the face of these circumstances, God promised to give Abram offspring. Nevertheless, Sarai, his wife, decided to anticipate the fulfillment of the promise and resorted to an ancient custom of that region that allowed a lady to become a mother through her servant, thus ensuring her husband’s lineage. This custom is attested to in the code of Hammurabi. Obviously, Sarai’s attempt to fulfill God’s covenant with Abram through her own plan was ill-conceived and problematic from the start. Sarai chose her personal servant, the Egyptian Hagar, to be the mother of Abram’s child. But as soon as Hagar became pregnant, a rivalry began in Abram’s house that lasted throughout history. First, Hagar began to despise Sarai, and Abram’s legitimate wife responded by humiliating her servant. Hagar then fled to the desert while still pregnant. According to the rules of the custom that guided the whole situation, the special servant chosen to bear the master’s offspring could never despise the legitimate wife. Therefore, in light of this custom, Hagar was wrong in her actions. However, in a merciful way, God spoke to Hagar in the desert.

The Bible says that the angel of the Lord found Hagar by a water source and told her to return to Abraham’s house and humble herself under the authority of her mistress, Sarai. However, on that occasion, Hagar also heard a decisive promise from the Lord regarding her offspring, which said a lot about who the Ishmaelites would be. In Genesis 16, between verses 10 and 12, we read that the angel of the Lord spoke to Hagar, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.” The angel of the Lord also said to her, “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 toward all his brothers.” When Abram was 86 years old, Ishmael was born. Later, at the age of 99, God changed Abram’s name to Abraham, which meant father of a multitude of nations. And at the age of 100, Abraham became the father of Isaac. The meaning of Abraham’s name, indicating that he would be the father of a multitude of nations, was fulfilled not only in the physical aspect, as Abraham was the ancestor of several peoples through Isaac, Ishmael, and his other sons with Keturah, but also in the spiritual aspect. As the New Testament explains that in Christ, all those who share Abraham’s faith are his spiritual children. The rivalry within Abraham’s house did not improve over time. In fact, after Isaac’s birth, coexistence in the patriarchal family became unsustainable. So, Sarah asked for the expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael. It should be noted that Sarah could not demand this. If Hagar acted against the custom of the time when she despised the legitimate wife of the master of the house, Sarah also acted against that custom when she asked for Ishmael and his mother to be expelled. Moreover, this episode brought concern to Abraham, as the biblical text says that he loved Ishmael. But God comforted him by saying that he would take care of the boy when he left his house. Indeed, this is what happened. Ishmael left Abraham’s house at about 16 years old. He grew up, settled in the desert of Paran, married an Egyptian woman, and became the ancestor of a great people who, in general, were designated as Ishmaelites. It is important to note that the term Ishmaelites that occurs a few times in the Old Testament also seems to have been a more generic designation in the sense of being an inclusive term that also encompassed other nomadic descendants of Abraham who wandered the Arabian Peninsula.

Some scholars believe that the use of the term Ishmaelite was similar to the modern use of the term Arab, which encompasses several tribes. Be that as it may, in fact, sometimes the term Ishmaelites is applied interchangeably in the Bible with other terms such as Midianites. For example, the biblical text says that when Joseph, Jacob’s son, was sold by his brothers, he was taken to Egypt by a caravan of Ishmaelite Midianites. Later, when the Midianites were defeated by the Israelites in the time of the judges, the Bible describes these people as also being Ishmaelites. These peoples descended from Abraham through the sons of his concubines and probably mixed through marriage. Moreover, the Ishmaelites even mixed with Isaac’s lineage through his son Esau, as Esau married a daughter of Ishmael. In Old Testament biblical times, the Ishmaelites lived in mobile camps and traveled throughout that vast desert area from Havilah to Shur, near the border with Egypt in the direction of Assyria. Just as the Israelites were organized into 12 tribes, interestingly, the Ishmaelites also organized themselves into 12 tribal colonies: Nebaioth, Kedar, Abdeel, Mibsam, Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. Some of these tribes are mentioned in extra-biblical texts, especially in Assyrian sources. The Ishmaelites were ruled by princes and lived as a free and itinerant people, venturing into the desert. They usually lived in huts and moved mainly using camels. They formed large caravans and survived mainly from trade. In Genesis 37:25, the Ishmaelites are depicted transporting spices from Gilead to trade in Egypt. These people are believed to have had significant wealth, particularly in gold. When Gideon defeated the Midianite Ishmaelites, for example, the people of Israel were able to obtain many gold pendants as spoils of war. In Judges 8 between verses 24 and 26, the biblical text emphasizes this characteristic of the Ishmaelites, highlighting that even their camels wore precious necklaces.
The warriors of Kedar, an Ishmaelite tribe, are also mentioned in Isaiah 21:17. It seems that these warriors had preserved the tradition of Ishmael’s skill with bow and arrow. In David’s time, the father of one of Absalom’s army commanders is designated as being an Ishmaelite, as we read in 1 Chronicles 2:17. However, some scholars believe that this man was actually an Israelite who lived in the land of Ishmael’s descendants. Due to the many mixtures and assimilations among the peoples who inhabited the ancient East, it is very difficult to delineate the Ishmaelites in the sequence of history. Moreover, there is no biblical text describing, for example, the destruction of the Ishmaelites. And this mixture was so great that among scholars, there is a discussion about the possibility of an Ishmaelite tribe, the descendants of Nebaioth, later giving rise to the Nabataeans who developed a prosperous civilization in the Greco-Roman period. Although many scholars consider this connection quite unlikely. Even today, Muslim Arabs claim to be descendants of Ishmael, and therefore, in a way, Ishmaelites. Be that as it may, the biblical text indicates that the Ishmaelites would be very numerous and powerful. Although Ishmael was not the son of God’s promise to Abraham, it is clear from the words of the angel of the Lord to Hagar in the desert, even before Ishmael’s birth, that God would reserve greatness for the Ishmaelites outside the covenant. But despite this, the history of Ishmael’s sons would be marked by conflicts and hostility. Now, write in the comments if you already knew who the Ishmaelites were in the Bible.