Ishmaelites

(Gen 25:16, 18)—the descendants of Ishmael, whose twelve sons became princes of the peoples or tribes of Ishmael. The book of Genesis relates that the sons of Ishmael were princes of their tribes, that they originally dwelt to the east of Egypt, in the direction of Assyria. In later times they undoubtedly scattered much farther beyond the land they had originally occupied. The predictions of the angel to Hagar concerning the Ishmaelites and their descendants were fulfilled almost to the letter (Gen 16:12, 17:20, 21:18).

The Arabs are generally regarded as the present-day representatives of the Ishmaelites. The name of the ancient Ishmaelites occurs repeatedly in Holy Scripture. Thus, for instance, we see in the story of Joseph that Joseph’s brothers, looking up, saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing spices, balm, and myrrh (Gen 37:25). These Ishmaelites, otherwise called Midianite merchants, bought Joseph from his brothers for twenty pieces of silver and resold him again in Egypt.

It was probably these same Ishmaelites who lived in the land of Midian. In the book of Judges (8:24) it is likewise said of the Midianites defeated by Gideon that they were Ishmaelites. The father of Amasa is called Jether the Ishmaelite (1 Chr 2:17). In the psalm (83:6) the Ishmaelites are also mentioned. Josephus testifies that the descendants of Ishmael occupied the whole land from the river Euphrates to the Red Sea and called it Nabatea (Antiquities 1, 12, 2, 4). Mohammed claimed to be a descendant of Ishmael and speaks of him in the Koran as an apostle and prophet.

In the course of time the Ishmaelites fell into gross idolatry, taking to worshiping the heavenly bodies and other creatures. Nevertheless, faith in the one God, it seems, was not entirely extinguished in their hearts, as can be seen from what follows. Some of the Ishmaelite tribes later converted to Judaism, and after apostolic times many of them accepted Christianity. Later, the dominant religion among them became Islam, which the majority still hold to this day. “He will be” among men, said the angel of the Lord to Hagar at the spring Beer-lahai-roi concerning Ishmael, “a wild ass of a man; his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him” (Gen 16:12).

And indeed, the descendants of Ishmael—the Arabs, or the Bedouins, as they are called, the “children of the desert”—to this day live by robbery and predatory raids upon their neighbors. Their dwelling is a tent or booth, almost without any household furnishings. The Arabs have large herds of cattle and especially horses. Even within their Muslim religion they still preserve to this day a great many pagan rites and customs, remaining among them from the most ancient times, from close relations (of trade, marriage, war) with the pagan peoples of Ammon, Moab, and Edom.