ISMAEL. - Son of Abraham and of Hagar, Sarah's slave. The circumstances of his birth are read in Gen. 16. Sarah, Abraham's wife, having no offspring and being of a very advanced age, offered her husband as a concubine (a wife of the second order, but legitimate) her own servant Hagar (perhaps given by the Pharaoh, cf. Gen. 12, 16), so that she might bear children, who by right would have been attributed to the mistress. The matter was in conformity with Babylonian law (which was the law of Abraham's country of origin); the code of Hammurabi bears witness to this, expressly contemplating the case (arts. 144-47). Hagar, as soon as she became a mother, grew proud against her mistress; and the latter "humbled" her (Gen. 16, 6), that is, restored her to the condition of a simple slave, as is provided in art. 146 of the said code of Hammurabi. The humiliated servant rebelled and fled into the desert; but, admonished by an angel, she returned to her masters and bore a son, by the name of I.: Abraham was then 86 years old.
I. was the first to be circumcised, together with his father, at the institution of the rite of circumcision (v.): he was then 13 years old (Gen. 17, 23 ff.). When the "son of the promise," Isaac, was born the following year from Sarah, disputes soon arose between the two mothers; and I. too set about harassing his brother Isaac, who was younger than he and of a quieter disposition (cf. Gen. 21, 9 ff.). For this reason Abraham was forced to send away Hagar and her son I., who headed south into the desert of Beersheba, where they lost their way and, for lack of water, found themselves in serious danger of death. But an angel saved them, pointing out a spring to them. I., grown in years, devoted himself to the nomadic life and to hunting, dwelling in the desert of Pharan, to the west, between Hevila and Sur (present-day Gifar). He took an Egyptian woman as his wife, and was the father of numerous offspring, as God had promised, by grace of his father Abraham (Gen. 17, 20; 21, 13, 18). With his brother Isaac he gave burial to Abraham (Gen. 25, 9) and died at the age of 137 years (ibid. 25, 17).
Bibliography
Gaetano Stano