Lives of Scripture

Ishmael was born to Abraham and Hagar when Abraham was eighty-six, the result of Sarai's plan to obtain an heir through her servant while God's promise of a son through Sarah still seemed impossible (Genesis 16:15-16). When God renewed His covenant and instituted circumcision as its sign, Ishmael was circumcised alongside his father at thirteen — even though the covenant itself would continue through a son not yet born to Sarah (Genesis 17:18-27). Abraham's plea, 'Oh that Ishmael might live before You!', shows real paternal love even as the covenant was redirected, and God answered: Ishmael would be blessed, multiplied, and father twelve princes — just not the nation of promise (Genesis 17:20). After Isaac's birth, Sarah demanded Ishmael and his mother be cast out; distressed, Abraham obeyed after God again promised to make a nation of Ishmael too (Genesis 21:8-13). Sent into the wilderness, Ishmael nearly died of thirst before God heard his voice and provided a well; Scripture says plainly 'God was with the lad,' and he grew up in Paran, became an archer, and was given an Egyptian wife by his mother (Genesis 21:17-21). His genealogy in Genesis 25:12-18 deliberately parallels Jacob's: twelve sons who became twelve tribal princes. Ishmael died at 137, but before that he and Isaac reappear at a moment of quiet reconciliation, burying their father Abraham side by side at Machpelah — two half-brothers whose lines had been separated by the covenant but who stood together at their father's grave (Genesis 25:9, 17).