Genesis 25:7-18

2008.Apr.05 03:46

The Other Son

Read Genesis 25:7-18 | Full Chapter

Abraham died at the ripe old age of one hundred seventy-five. His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him east of Hebron in Machpelah Cave that was part of the field Abraham had bought from Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite. Abraham was buried there beside his wife Sarah. God blessed Isaac after this, and Isaac moved to a place called "The Well of the Living One Who Sees Me."
(Genesis 25:7-11, CEV)

Abraham, grandfather of Israel, has died. He lived well, made some mistakes, but ultimately lived a life of faith (Hebrews 11:8-10). I don’t have a lot more to say about Abraham at this point.

This passage is also a bit of a coda on the life of Ishmael, Abraham’s eldest son. That Isaac and Ishmael apparently worked together to bury their father is at least a nice idea. These two sort of got stuck in the middle of the Abraham-Hagar-Sarah triangle, but I’ve seen no reason to assume that these two didn’t get on just fine (although Isaac maybe thought all this was normal, based on the favorites games he and Rebekah seem to play once they have children).

I hear some amount of talk about the struggles between modern day Arabs and Jews having its roots in Ishmael-Isaac–as opposed to, say, the complete fuck up of a job the government of Great Britain (and to be fair, other European powers and the US) did in the Middle East in the last century or so. But I digress. I really don’t see animosity between Ishmael and Isaac, and I think it’s foolish and distracting to place the blame for modern struggles on the actions of Biblical patriarchs. Yes, sure, many of their actions do have effect today (as shown by the fact that I am commenting on their stories), but I should not place blame on the distant past at the expense of recognizing the effects of my own actions and those of my contemporaries.

I guess I didn’t stop digressing, there.

Ishmael was the son of Abraham and Hagar, the slave woman of Sarah. Ishmael had twelve sons, in this order: Nebaioth, Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. Each of Ishmael's sons was a tribal chief, and a village was named after each of them. Ishmael had settled in the land east of his brothers, and his sons settled everywhere from Havilah to Shur, east of Egypt on the way to Asshur. Ishmael was one hundred thirty-seven when he died.
(Genesis 25:12-18, CEV)

So, Ishmael has twelve sons (an interesting complement to the twelve sons of Jacob), and the passage implies that they were a fairly powerful group of people. Ishmael settles somewhere, which is about all I can figure from the description. Well, it’s east of Egypt. So, God’s promise to Abraham that Ishmael too would be a great nation is fulfilled (Genesis 21:12). What I particularly don’t see in all this is God punishing Ishmael or his descendants for the actions of Abraham and Sarah. Instead, Yahweh brought Ishmael into his plan, and blessed the man who too often I think of as “the other son”.