• Ish-bosheth
    Aid to Bible Understanding

    • Ish-bosheth’s short rule was marked by both internal and external troubles. The war between his house and that of David “came to be long drawn out”; he lost 360 men to David’s 20 in one engagement. (2 Sam. 2:12-31; 3:1) At the same time his relative Abner kept strengthening himself at the expense of Ish-bosheth, even to the point of having relations with one of Saul’s concubines, which, according to Oriental custom, was tantamount to treason. When rebuked for this by Ish-bosheth, Abner withdrew his support and made a covenant with David, part of which stipulated the return of David’s wife, Michal, who was Ish-bosheth’s own sister. (3:6-21) Abner’s death at the hand of Joab further weakened Ish-bosheth’s position, and shortly thereafter two of his own captains assassinated him while taking his midday siesta. (3:22-27; 4:1, 2, 5-7) However, when these murderers, in seeking a reward, brought Ish-bosheth’s head to David, he had them put to death and ordered the head interred in the tomb of Abner at Hebron.—4:8-12.

      Thus it was that the dynasty of Saul, which could have lasted “to time indefinite,” came to its abrupt and humiliating end, not because of the sins of Ish-bosheth but, instead, because of those of his father. (1 Sam. 13:13; 15:26-29) It is true, Ish-bosheth was a weak ruler, one who gained and held the throne principally because of the strength of Abner. Nevertheless, David referred to him as “a righteous man.”—2 Sam. 4:11.

  • Ishmael
    Aid to Bible Understanding

    • ISHMAEL

      (Ishʹma·el) [God hears].

      1. Son of Abraham by Sarah’s Egyptian slave girl Hagar; born in 1932 B.C.E., his father being eighty-six years old at the time. (Gen. 16:1-4, 11-16) When informed that Sarah would also have a son from whom “kings of peoples” would come, Abraham petitioned God in behalf of his firstborn: “O that Ishmael might live before you!” God’s reply, after declaring that the future son Isaac would be the covenant heir, was: “As regards Ishmael I have heard you. Look! I will bless him and will make him fruitful and will multiply him very, very much. He will certainly produce twelve chieftains, and I will make him become a great nation.” (Gen. 17:16, 18-20) Ishmael was then circumcised, at the age of thirteen, along with his father and his father’s servants.—Gen. 17:23-27.

      A year later Isaac was born; Ishmael was now fourteen. (Gen. 16:16; 21:5) Five years after that, in 1913 B.C.E., on the day of Isaac’s being weaned, Ishmael was caught “poking fun” at his younger half brother. (Gen. 21:8, 9) This was no innocent child’s play on the part of Ishmael. Rather, as implied by the next verse in the account, it may have involved a taunting of Isaac over heirship. The apostle Paul says these events were “a symbolic drama” and shows that the mistreatment of Isaac by the half-blooded Egyptian Ishmael was persecution. Hence, this was the beginning of the foretold four hundred years of Israel’s affliction that ended with deliverance from Egyptian bondage in 1513 B.C.E.—Gal. 4:22-31; Gen. 15:13; Acts 7:6; see ISAAC.

      Ishmael’s demonstration of scorn toward Isaac led to the dismissal of him and his mother from Abraham’s household, but not without provisions for their journey. Abraham “took bread and a skin water bottle and gave it to Hagar, setting it upon her shoulder, and the child, and then dismissed her.” (Gen. 21:14) Some have interpreted this to mean that Ishmael, now nineteen years old, was also placed on the back of Hagar, and indeed this is the way some translations read. (JB, Mo, Bagster’s LXX) Certain scholars, however, consider the phrase “setting it upon her shoulder” as only parenthetical, inserted to explain how the bread and water were carried, and so, if this phrase is placed in parentheses or set off by commas the difficulty is removed. Professor Keil asserts that the expression “and the child” depends upon the sentence’s principal verb “took,” not on the verb “gave” or the word “setting.” This tie-in of “the child” with “took” is made by the conjunction “and.” The thought, therefore, is this: Abraham took bread and water and gave them to Hagar (placing them on her shoulder) and took the child and also gave it to her.—Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, Vol. I, “The Pentateuch,” pp. 244, 245.

      Hagar apparently lost her way in the wilderness of Beer-sheba, and so when the water ran out and Ishmael became exhausted, “she threw the child under one of the bushes.” (Gen. 21:14, 15) This expression “threw the child” does not mean Ishmael was a baby in arms. The Hebrew word yeʹledh (child) does not necessarily refer to an infant, but is often applied to an adolescent boy or a young man. Hence, it was said of the youth Joseph (seventeen at the time), that he was sold into slavery over Reuben’s protest, “Do not sin against the child [yeʹledh].”—Lamech likewise spoke of “a young man [yeʹledh]” as having wounded him.—Gen. 42:22; 4:23; see also 2 Chronicles 10:8.

      Neither does Hagar’s act of ‘throwing’ the child down Imply she was carrying him in her arms or on her back, though she was evidently supporting her tired son. She apparently withdrew her support suddenly, as did those who brought lame and infirm ones to Jesus and “fairly threw them at his feet.”—Matt. 15:30.

      In accord with the meaning of Ishmael’s name, “God heard” his cry for help, provided the necessary water and allowed him to live to become an archer. As a nomadic inhabitant of the Paran wilderness he fulfilled the prophecy that said of him: “He will become a zebra of a man. His hand will be against everyone, and the hand of everyone will be against him; and before the face of all his brothers he will tabernacle.” (Gen. 21:17-21; 16:12) Hagar found an Egyptian wife for her son and he in time fathered twelve sons, chieftains and family heads of the promised “great nation” of Ishmaelites. Ishmael also had at least one daughter, Mahalath, who married Esau.—Gen. 17:20; 21:21; 25:13-16; 28:9; see ISH-MAELITE.

      At the age of eighty-nine Ishmael assisted Isaac in burying their father Abraham. After that he lived another forty-eight years, dying in 1795 B.C.E. at the age of 137. (Gen. 25:9, 10, 17) There is no record of Ishmael’s being buried in the cave of Machpelah where Abraham and Isaac, along with their wives, were then entombed.—Gen. 49:29-31.

      2. A descendant of Saul through Jonathan; son of Azel of the tribe of Benjamin.—1 Chron. 8:33-38, 40; 9:44.

      3. Father of Zebadiah who was appointed by Jehoshaphat to serve as a royal representative in judicial matters; of the tribe of Judah.—2 Chron. 19:8, 11.

      4. One of the “chiefs of hundreds” who entered the covenant with High Priest Jehoiada for the overthrow of wicked Athaliah and the enthronement of Jehoash; son of Jehohanan.—2 Chron. 23:1, 12-15, 20; 24:1.

      5. Ringleader of those who killed Governor Gedaliah only three months after the downfall of Jerusalem in 607 B.C.E.; son of Nethaniah of the royal line. At the time the governor’s appointment was made by Nebuchadnezzar, Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, was in the field as one of the military chiefs. Later, he came to Gedaliah and apparently entered a sworn covenant of peace and support with the governor. Secretly, however, Ishmael conspired with Baalis, the king of the Ammonites, to kill Gedaliah. Other military commanders, including Johanan, warned Gedaliah of Ishmael’s mischief, but the governor, not believing the report, refused to grant Johanan permission to strike Ishmael down.—2 Ki. 25:22-24; Jer. 40:7-16.

      As a result, when Gedaliah was entertaining Ishmael and his band of ten men at a meal, they rose up and killed their host as well as the Jews and Chaldeans who were with him. The next day these assassins seized eighty men who had come from Shechem, Shiloh and Samaria, killing all but ten of them, and throwing their bodies into the great cistern built by King Asa. Ishmael and his men then took the remnant of those living in Mizpah captive and headed for Ammonite territory. On the way Johanan and his forces overtook and rescued the captives, but Ishmael and eight of his men escaped to their Ammonite sanctuary.—2 Ki. 25:25; Jer. 41:1-18.

      6. One of the priests of the paternal house of Pashhur who put away their foreign wives in the days of Ezra.—Ezra 10:22, 44.

  • Ishmaelite
    Aid to Bible Understanding

    • ISHMAELITE

      (Ishʹma·el·ite).

      A descendant of Ishmael, the firstborn son of Abraham by Hagar, the Egyptian handmaid of Sarah. (Gen. 16:1-4, 11) Ishmael, in turn, married an Egyptian by whom he had twelve sons (Nebaioth, Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, Kedemah), the chieftains of the various Ishmaelite clans. (Gen. 21:21; 25:13-16) The Ishmaelites, therefore, were at the start one-fourth Semitic and threefourths Hamitic, racially speaking.

      As God had promised, the Ishmaelites grew to become “a great nation” that ‘could not be numbered for multitude.’ (Gen. 17:20; 16:10) But instead of settling down (they built few cities), they preferred the nomadic life. Ishmael himself was “a zebra of a man,” that is, a restless wanderer who roamed the Wilderness of Paran and lived by his bow and arrows. His descendants were likewise tent-dwelling bedouins for the most part, a people who ranged over the Sinai Peninsula from “in front of Egypt,” that is, to the E of Egypt and across N Arabia as far as Assyria. They were noted for being a fierce, warlike people hard to get along with, even as it was said of their father Ishmael: “His hand will be against everyone, and the hand of everyone will be against him.”—Gen. 16:12; 21:20, 21; 25:16, 18.

      In further describing the Ishmaelites, it is said: “In front of all his brothers he settled down [Heb., na·phalʹ].” (Gen. 25:18) Similarly, the Midianites and their allies, it was said, “were plumped [noph·limʹ, a participle form of na·phalʹ] in the low plain” in Israelite territory until Gideon’s band forcefully routed them. (Judg. 7:1, 12) Hence, when the Ishmaelites “settled down” it was evidently with the intent of holding on to the region until forcefully removed.

      In the course of time it is quite likely that intermarriage between Ishmaelites and descendants of Abraham through Keturah (Gen. 25:1-4) occurred, resulting in the race of Arabs that occupied sections of Arabia. Since Ishmael and Midian were half brothers, any intermarriage of their respective descendants with the amalgamation of their blood, habits, traits and occupations could have given rise to an interchangeable usage of the terms “Ishmaelites” and ‘Midianites,’ as is noted in the description of the caravan that sold Joseph into Egyptian slavery. (Gen. 37:25-28; 39:1) In the days of Gideon the hordes that invaded Israel were described as both Midianites and Ishmaelites, one of the identifying marks of the latter being their gold nose rings.—Judg. 8:24; compare 7:25 and 8:22, 26.

      The animosity Ishmael had toward Isaac seems to have been handed down to his descendants, even to the extent of hating the God of Isaac, for the psalmist in enumerating those that are “the very ones intensely hating” Jehovah, includes the Ishmaelites. (Ps. 83:1, 2, 5, 6) There were, however, evidently exceptions. Under the organizational arrangement instituted by David, Obil, who is referred to as an Ishmaelite, had supervision over the camels of the king.—1 Chron. 27:30, 31.

      In the seventh century C.E. Mohammed claimed to be an Ishmaelite descendant of Abraham.

  • Ishtob
    Aid to Bible Understanding

    • ISHTOB

      (Ishʹtob) [man of Tob (good)].

      One of the small kingdoms that provided fighting men for the sons of Ammon to use against David. The forces from “Ishtob” and their allies were defeated. (2 Samuel chapter 10, AT, AV, NW, Yg) Most translators and geographers consider that Ishtob should be rendered “men of Tob,” referring to “the land of Tob” where Jephthah resided. (Judg. 11:3-11; see 2 Samuel 10:6, 8, AS, JB, JP, RS.) However, the reading “Ishtob” has the support of certain ancient versions. (Compare Bagster’s LXX [translated from Greek]; La [from Syriac]; and Dy [from Latin].) The location of an ancient Ishtob is not now known.—See TOB.