Abraham’s wife, Sarah, owned an Egyptian slave girl named Hagar, who is the father of Ishmael. Since he and Sarah had believed he was the son of God’s promise, Abraham named him Ishmael, which means “God hears”. The Arab countries adopted Ishmael as their father.
God had assured Abraham that he would bear a son and that the number of his offspring would equal the stars in the sky. However, as time went on and God had not kept his word, Sarah came up with a scheme, to which Abraham consented. Abraham received Hagar, her Egyptian maidservant, from her. When Hagar became pregnant, Abraham was eighty-six years old when Ishmael was born. The Lord’s angel informed Hagar before Ishmael was born, “This son of yours will be a wild man, as untamed as a wild donkey! Everyone will be against him when he raises his fist in opposition to them. Indeed, he will have open animosity for all of his kin.
Ishmael was reared in his father’s home until God visited him at the age of thirteen, reiterating the terms of their bond and reassuring him that Sarah, not Hagar, would bear the child of promise. “As for Ishmael, I will bless him too, just as you have asked,” God said to Abraham. I will increase his offspring and make him incredibly fruitful. I will make him a vast country, and he will father twelve princes. However, Isaac, who will be born to you and Sarah about this time next year, will validate my commitment. The circumcision ceremony was introduced by the Lord as a representation of His covenant vow. That day, Ishmael and Abraham were both circumcised.
Sarah gave birth to Isaac a year later, when Abraham was 100 years old. Abraham celebrated the boy’s coming of age with a grand feast when he was two or three years old, about the time he was to be weaned. By then, Ishmael was most likely sixteen years old. Ishmael insulted Isaac at the feast, which infuriated Sarah. She insisted that Abraham cast Ishmael and Hagar out. Ishmael was not going to inherit anything from Isaac, according to Sarah.
Ishmael’s departure greatly disturbed Abraham, but God comforted him, saying, “Do not be upset over the boy and your servant.” You will be numbered among your descendants via Isaac, so follow Sarah’s instructions. But because he is also your son, I will also create a nation out of the descendants of Hagar’s son. After giving Hagar some food and drink, Abraham sent them on their way.
Until their supplies ran out, mother and boy were lost in Beersheba’s desert. Hagar moved away after placing Ishmael beneath a bush’s shade because she did not want to see him perish. God’s angel appeared to Hagar while she sat down far away and began to cry, assuring her that Ishmael would live and flourish.
According to the Bible, God was with Ishmael during his upbringing on the eastern Sinai Peninsula: “He settled in the wilderness of Paran and became a skilled archer.” His mother made arrangements for him to wed an Egyptian woman. Ishmael proved that there were, at the very least, occasionally cordial exchanges between him and his father’s household when he attended Abraham’s burial after his death.
Twelve sons and a daughter who wed Esau were fathered by Ishmael. He reached the magnificent age of 137. Scripture claims that Ishmael’s countless descendants lived in animosity toward all of their relatives and moved close to Egypt’s eastern border.
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