Is Ishmael Mentioned Again After Abraham Sends Him Away
Hagar and Ishmael Are Banished
The biblical account of Hagar and Ishmael is heartbreaking. When Abraham and Sarah fail to take a child together, Sarah offers her handmaid Hagar to her husband then he may have a son, saying, אוּלַי אִבָּנֶה מִמֶּנָּה "Perhaps I shall be built upwardly through her" (Gen sixteen:2).[1] Merely when Sarah herself finally gives nascence to Isaac years later, she insists that Hagar and her son Ishmael be banished:
בראשית כא:י גָּרֵשׁ הָאָמָה הַזֹּאת וְאֶת בְּנָהּ כִּי לֹא יִירַשׁ בֶּן הָאָמָה הַזֹּאת עִם בְּנִי עִם יִצְחָק.
Gen 21:ten Bandage out that slave-woman and her son, for the son of that slave shall not share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.[2]
God tells Abraham to listen to Sarah, assuring him that Ishmael volition too go a dandy nation, but that Abraham'due south genealogical line will continue through Isaac: כִּי בְיִצְחָק יִקָּרֵא לְךָ זָרַע, "information technology is through Isaac that your descendants will exist chosen" (Gen 21:12). Hagar and Ishmael are immediately banished to the wilderness with few provisions. They wander and soon their supplies are exhausted. God responds to Ishmael's cries and sends an angel of God to relieve them. The final two verses of the episode present an unsettling kind of closure, focusing on the life of Hagar and Ishmael away from Abraham:
בראשית כא:כ וַיְהִי אֱלֹהִים אֶת הַנַּעַר וַיִּגְדָּל וַיֵּשֶׁב בַּמִּדְבָּר וַיְהִי רֹבֶה קַשָּׁת. כא:כא וַיֵּשֶׁב בְּמִדְבַּר פָּארָן וַתִּקַּח לוֹ אִמּוֹ אִשָּׁה מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם.
Gen 21:twenty God was with the boy and he grew upwards; he dwelt in the wilderness and became a bowman. 21:21 He lived in the wilderness of Paran; and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
This is that last we hear about Hagar.
A Troubling Business relationship
The story of Hagar and Ishmael's expulsion leaves us with an unpleasant feeling of incompleteness. Although God does back Sarah'southward demand, we cannot help questioning the ideals of those responsible or worrying about the fate of those cast out.[3] Nothing in the biblical text itself portrays mother and son and so negatively as to justify such harsh handling.[4] Abraham is even described as loving Ishmael, since he grieves at Sarah'due south insistence to banish them:
בראשית כא:יא וַיֵּרַע הַדָּבָר מְאֹד בְּעֵינֵי אַבְרָהָם עַל אוֹדֹת בְּנוֹ.
Gen 21:11 The matter was very distressing to Abraham on account of his son.
Although we only hear about his feelings for Ishmael in this verse, the rabbis believe he loved Hagar too, and read this into a later story.
Keturah: Abraham'due south Reconciliation with Hagar?
In Genesis 25, afterwards Sarah'south death (Gen 23) and Isaac's marriage (Gen 24), Abraham takes another wife named Keturah, and we acquire the names of their descendants, and how they were sent east, and then equally non to threaten Isaac's inheritance (Gen. 25:one–6). The rabbis suggest that the wife he took afterwards Sarah's death, Keturah, is really Hagar (Genesis Rabbah 61:4):
ויוסף אברהם ויקח אשה וגו' ר' יהודה אמר זו הגר, אמר ליה ר' נחמיה... והכת' ושמה קטורה, אמר ליה שקיטרה מצוות ומעשים טובים.
"Abraham took another wife" (Gen 25:one)—Rabbi Yehudah said: "That is Hagar." R. Nehemiah said to him… "Does it not say 'whose name was Keturah'?" [Rabbi Yehuda] responded: "she was fragrant (ק.ט.ר) with mitzvot and skilful deeds."[5]
In short, the rabbis empathise Keturah as a nickname for Hagar, and imagine that Abraham and Hagar are reunited at the end of their lives. But what of Ishmael?
Ishmael Reconciled with Isaac
The verses announcing Abraham's death strike an optimistic chord almost the human relationship between the brothers:
בראשית כה:ט וַיִּקְבְּרוּ אֹתוֹ יִצְחָק וְיִשְׁמָעֵאל בָּנָיו אֶל מְעָרַת הַמַּכְפֵּלָה...
Gen 25:nine His sons Isaac and Ishmael cached him in the cave of Machpelah…
Later we are told that Isaac's son Esau married Ishmael'southward daughter (Gen 28:nine, 36:three), further implying that relations were normalized betwixt the brothers and their families. Finally, the text tells u.s.a. the names of Ishmael'south descendants who dwelt in the wilderness most Arab republic of egypt,[half dozen] and we learn that Ishmael lived to the age of 137 (Gen 25:12–18), both of which imply that Ishmael had a full and successful life. And yet, nowhere do we hear virtually any reconciliation between father and son.
Abraham Visits Ishmael: Jewish Version
Pirkey de'Rabbi Eliezer (PRE), generally dated to the eightth or early 9th century C.Due east.,[seven] offers a fascinating annex to the end of their biblical story. PRE introduces the story with (Higger ed.):
וַיֵּשֶׁב בְּמִדְבַּר פָּארָן, שלח ישמעאל ולקח לו אשה מבנות מואב ועָאִישָה שמה.
And he (Ishmael) dwelt in the wilderness of Paran" (Gen 21:21). Ishmael sent and took a married woman from the daughters of Moab named ʿAʾishah.[eight]
ʿAʾishah is presented here as Moabite, though the name is Arabic, and was the name of 1 of Muhammad's wives. The story then continues with Abraham'due south run into with this woman:
לאחר שלש שנים הלך אברהם לראות את ישמעאל בנו, ונשבע לשרה שלא ירד מעל הגמל במקום שישמעאל שרוי תמן, והגיע לשם בחצי היום, ומצא שם את אשתו של ישמעאל, אמר לה היכן הוא ישמעאל, אמרה לו הלך הוא ואמו להביא פירות ותמרים מן המדבר, אמר לה תני לי מעט לחם ומים כי עייפה נפשי מדרך המדבר, אמרה לו אין לי לחם ולא מים,
Later on three years, Abraham went to meet Ishmael his son, having sworn to Sarah that he would not get off of his camel in the place where Ishmael lived. He arrived at that place at midday and found there the wife of Ishmael. He said to her, "Where is Ishmael?" She answered him, "He went with his female parent to bring fruit and dates from the wilderness." He said to her, "Give me a trivial bread and h2o, for I am terribly faint from the journey through the desert." She said to him, "I have no bread and no water."
The story begins with Abraham navigating the same tension familiar from Genesis 21: He is attached to his son, but Sarah is determined that he maintain a clear distance. Upon his arrival, Abraham is disappointed with his daughter-in-law'southward lack of hospitality, which clashes with i of Abraham'due south cadre principles (see Genesis 18–xix) and full general norms of hospitality; information technology contrasts sharply with Rebekah's treatment of Abraham's servant in Gen 24:17–xx.[9]
ʿAʾishah's lack of hospitality connects with her existence Moabite, a group which, the Torah reports, also do not bring the Israelites "bread and water" when they were in demand (Deut 23:4–five). Abraham leaves a hint for his son to divorce his married woman:
אמר לה כשיבא ישמעאל הגידי לו את הדברים הללו וב"ן חכ"ם כחצ"י חכ"ם ואמרי לו זקן אחד מארץ כנען בא לראותך ואמר חלף מפתן ביתך שאינה [סף הבית אינה] טובה לך,
He said to her, "When Ishmael comes [dwelling house] tell him these words, 'the son of a wise man is like half of a wise homo,' and tell him that an old man from the Land of Canaan came to see you lot, and he said, 'Exchange the threshold of your house, for information technology is not good for you.'"
Ishmael takes the hint:
וכשבא ישמעאל מן המדבר הגידה לו את הדברים הללו, ובן חכם כחצי חכם, והבין ישמעאל ושלחה אמו ולקחה לו אשה מבית אביה וּפָטִימָה שמה.
When Ishmael came in from the wilderness, she told him those words, and "a son of a wise man is like half of a wise man," and Ishmael understood. His mother then sent for a woman from her father'southward house, and her name was Fatimah.
The claim that Hagar gets Ishmael a wife from Arab republic of egypt is explicit in the Torah (Gen 21:21), but here this is his 2nd wife, and Hagar specifically chooses someone from her hometown, because Abraham rejected the start wife and she ostensibly wants to ensure that the trouble doesn't arise over again. Fatima was the proper noun of Muhammad's daughter.
The story continues with Abraham meeting the next wife:
ועוד אחר שלש שנים הלך אברהם לראות את ישמעאל בנו, ונשבע לשרה כפעם ראשונה שאינו יורד מן הגמל במקום שישמעאל שרוי שם, והגיע לשם בחצי היום ומצא שם אשתו של ישמעאל ואמר לה היכן הוא ישמעאל, אמרה לו הוא ואמו הלכו לרעות את הגמלים במדבר, אמר לה תני לי מעט לחם ומים כי עייפה נפשי מדרך המדבר, והוציאה לחם ומים ונתנה לו, עמד אברהם והיה מתפלל לפני הב"ה על בנו ונתמלא ביתו של ישמעאל מכל טוב ממין הברכות, וכשבא ישמעאל הגידה לו את הדבר וידע ישמעאל שעד עכשו רחמי אביו עליו שנ' (תהילים קג, יג) כְּרַחֵם אָב עַל בָּנִים.
After iii years, Abraham again went to see his son Ishmael, having sworn to Sarah as on the starting time occasion that he would not get off his camel in the identify where Ishmael lived. He arrived there at midday and found Ishmael's wife there. He said to her, "Where is Ishmael?" She said to him, "He and his mother went to graze the camels in the wilderness." He said to her, "Give me a little bread and water, for I am terribly faint from the journey through the desert." She brought bread and water and gave them to him. Abraham arose and prayed to the Holy Ane, blessed be He for his son, and Ishmael's firm became filled with all good things of the various blessings. When Ishmael came [habitation], she told him what had occurred, and Ishmael knew that his father's love and compassion for him remained, as it is said, "Like a begetter has pity for his children" (Ps 103:13).
Different ʿAʾishah, Fatima is generous and kind, and Abraham leaves a hint to Ishmael that he approves of this match, and Ishmael takes this equally a sign of his father's continuing love for him, despite the separation enforced by Sarah. The midrash then ends with a postscript which is a version of the midrash quoted above:
לאחר מיתתה של שרה חזר אברהם ולקח את גרושתו, שנ' (בראשית כה, א) וַיֹּסֶף אַבְרָהָם וַיִּקַּח אִשָּׁה וּשְׁמָהּ קְטוּרָה, ומדקאמר ויוסף משמע שפעם ראשונה היתה אשתו ועוד לא הוסיף לבא עליה, ושמה קטורה שהיתה מקוטרת מכל מיני בשמים, ד"א קטורה שהיו נאים מעשיה כקטרת, ילדה לו ששה בנים וכלם נקראו על שמו של ישמעאל...
After the death of Sarah, Abraham returned and took his divorced wife, as it is said, "And Abraham once again took a wife and her proper name is Keturah" (Gen 25:1). The reason information technology says "again" is considering at first, she was his wife (=Hagar, as per Gen sixteen:3), simply he did non continue to lay with her. Her proper name is Keturah because she was perfumed (ק.ט.ר) in all kinds of scents. Some other explanation: She is called Keturah because her deeds were cute like incense. She gave birth to half dozen sons for him, and all of them were named after Ishmael…
Thus, the PRE story is overwhelmingly positive virtually Hagar and Ishmael, presenting Sarah equally the simply impediment to this branch of the family unit remaining with Abraham. The reason for Abraham's visit in the Jewish version seems clear: The terrible trauma of expulsion had to be resolved, and Abraham's standing as patriarch of the Jewish people had to be rescued.
This is accomplished through Abraham's blessings on Ishmael and his family and his restoration of Hagar's status in the person of Keturah. Abraham remains steadfastly loyal to his first wife Sarah, notwithstanding he would not abandon his firstborn son, nor would he forsake his son'southward female parent Hagar, who after Sarah'south death became Abraham'due south 2d wife.
Abraham Visits Ishmael: Muslim Version
In Islamic tradition, in a genre called "Stories of the Prophets" (qiṣaṣ al-anbiyā'), we find a version of the story of Abraham visiting Ishmael in the desert that is strikingly similar to the story found in PRE.[10] Whereas the location for Ishmael'south encampment in the Jewish story, based on Gen. 21:21, is in a wilderness called Paran, the Islamic story sets Paran (Fārān in Arabic) in the location of Mecca, the place where the prophet Muhammad would be born many centuries later.
One collector of such stories was a brilliant historian and Qur'an commentator named Muḥammad ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī (d. 923), who lived in Baghdad and was a contemporary of Saadia Gaon (d. 942), so the story is roughly contemporary with PRE.
The story begins with Hagar's death (unbeknownst to Abraham and Sarah):
When Hagar died, Ishmael married a Jurhumite adult female. Abraham asked Sarah's permission to go and visit Hagar, and Sarah permitted it, but she made it conditional that he non settle down in that location.[eleven] Abraham set out—Hagar had already died—to Ishmael'southward house. He said to Ishmael'south wife, "Where is your husband?" She answered, "He is not here. He went hunting." Ishmael would oft leave the Sanctuary[12] to get hunting. Abraham asked, "Do you accept any adaptation? Exercise you have any food or drink?" She answered, "I have nothing, and there is no one with me." Abraham said, "When your married man comes, give him greetings and tell him to change the threshold of his door."[xiii]
Once again, Ishmael takes the hint:
Abraham left, and when Ishmael came back he found the odor of his father. And so he said to his married woman, "Did anyone come to you?" She answered, "An onetime man of such-and-such description came to me"—as though she were making calorie-free of him. Ishmael said, "What did he say to you lot?" She answered, "He told me, 'Give your hubby greetings and tell him to change the threshold of his door.'" Then he divorced her and married another.[14]
The story continues with Abraham's second visit:
Abraham stayed in Syrian arab republic (i.eastward., the Levant) as long every bit God willed, and and then asked Sarah'southward permission to visit Ishmael. She permitted him merely fabricated it conditional that he non settle down there. Abraham came to Ishmael's door and said to his [new] wife, "Where is your husband?" She answered, "He went hunting but volition return soon, God willing, so stay, and may God be merciful to y'all!" He asked her, "Practise you have any adaptation?" She answered, "Aye." He said, "Practice y'all take breadstuff or wheat or barley or dates?" She brought milk and meat, and he prayed for blessing on both of them.[15]
Over again, this second wife proves to be a kind and gracious woman, of whom Abraham approves.
Why Is Mecca So Dry?
The text so offers a side comment:
Had she brought staff of life or wheat or barley or dates on that twenty-four hour period, [that place] would have been the most plentifully supplied on globe with wheat and barley and dates.[16]
This annotate is meant to explicate why the holy city of Mecca seems so dry, and—aside from its one miraculous leap—and so inhospitable. Ishmael's wife brought Abraham the food that was typical of desert nomads, which he blessed. If she had brought agricultural products, then Abraham'due south blessing would have ensured that Mecca be a green oasis rather than a desert outpost.
The Place of Abraham and the Kaʿba
Al-Ṭabarī'due south version continues not with the Keturah/Hagar midrash—recollect, Hagar was already deceased in this version—but with an anecdote absent in PRE:
She said, "Stay so that I may wash your caput." But he would not stay, then she brought him the maqām and placed it on his right side. He set his pes on it and the marking of his foot remained on information technology. She and then done the right side of his head. Then she moved the maqām to the left side and washed the left side.[17]
The Arabic for "stay" too means "get down" or "descend." So it also means "get downwardly from your camel and so I can launder your head" (which of course gets very hot and dry in the desert). She then brings the maqām ibrāhim, which functions equally a kind of step-stool, and so that he could stay on the camel. Notably, the camel does not appear in the Islamic version of the story—simply in the Jewish version, and the same goes for the refusal to get downward (the Islamic version just says that he won't dwell there), so this particular motif fits the Jewish version of the story better than the Islamic version, yet some other hint of the very close textual relationship between the 2.
This maqām, cognate with Hebrew maqôm, is a reference to the Muslim holy place, equally we see in the Qur'an (ii:125):
two:125 When We made The House (al-bayt) a refuge and safe for humankind [We said]: Take as your place of worship the Maqām Ibrāhīm. Nosotros covenanted with Abraham and Ishmael [saying]: Purify My house for those who circumambulate, are engaged [with information technology], and bow and prostrate themselves. And then Abraham prayed: Lord, Make this area safety, and bestow its people with fruits—those among them who believe in God and the Final Day.[18]
The story of Abraham's visits to Ishmael in Mecca and his vow to Sarah not to stay, manifestly interpreted here as something like stepping into the house, requires that Ishmael's wife bring a step for him to stand on. This is an etiological origin story for the Maqām Ibrāhīm referenced here.
Today in Mecca in the sacred precinct of the Kaʿba, a modest structure chosen Maqām Ibrāhīm houses a brusk stone pillar about the size of a tall stool, upon which tin exist seen two footprints that are considered those of Abraham from his visit to Ishmael.
Abraham'due south Blessing
At this signal, this account returns to the familiar storyline:
He said to her, "When your husband comes home, give him greetings and say to him, 'The threshold of your door has been put in club.'" When Ishmael came, he found the scent of his father and said to his married woman, "Did someone come to y'all?" She answered, "Yes, an erstwhile human, the handsomest and best-smelling. He said to me such-and-such, and I answered such-and-such, and I washed his head, and this is the place of his anxiety on the maqām." He asked, "What did he say to y'all?" She answered, "He said to me, 'When your husband comes, requite him greetings and tell him that the threshold of your door has been put in order.'" Ishmael said, "That was Abraham."[19]
The message of the legend would non be lost on Muslims, who traced the ancestry of Muhammad to Abraham via Ishmael and Hagar.
The Kaʿba and the Qur'an
The final part of the Islamic midrash turns to the building of the Kaʿba, later which Al-Ṭabarī records another tradition of what seems to be a 3rd visit:
He came—that is, Abraham —and establish Ishmael mending his arrows backside Zamzam and said to him, "O Ishmael! Your Lord has allowable me to build Him a House." Ishmael replied, "So obey your Lord and exercise what He allowable you to exercise." Then Abraham said, "He has commanded that you assist me with it." Ishmael responded, "And then I'll exercise it!" They began together, Abraham doing the edifice while Ishmael handed him the stones, and both of them saying, "O Lord! Accept this from us, for You are the Hearer, the Knower" (Q.two:127).[20]
When the edifice had become alpine and the one-time homo was also weak to elevator the stones then high, [Ishmael] came upon a rock that was the maqām Ibrāhīm. He began to give it to him, while both were saying, "Accept this from us, for Y'all are the Hearer, the Knower" (Q.ii:127).[21]
When Abraham had finished edifice the House that God had commanded be built, God commanded that he proclaim the pilgrimage amongst humankind, saying to him, "And proclaim the pilgrimage unto humankind. They will come to you lot on foot and on every lean camel; they will come from every deep ravine" (Q.22:27).[22]
According to this account, Abraham and Ishmael appear together in Arabia and raise upward the foundations of the Kaʿba in Mecca, the most sacred site in the Muslim world. That structure is called "The House" in the Qur'an (al-bayt), a proper noun reminiscent of the Jerusalem Temple (ha-bayit = later Hebrew beit hamiqdash). Equally a sort of prooftext, the story quotes the passage in the Qur'an which relates this (2:127).[23]
Did Begetter and Son Meet?
The Jewish and Muslim stories differ in several respects. Unique to the Jewish story is Abraham's reconciliation with Hagar; in the Islamic version, Hagar is already deceased before the visit always takes identify. The Islamic version is unique both in its etiology of the maqām Abraham in the Kaʿba, and the geography of the visit (Paran is in Arabia rather than just southward of the Land of Israel), as well as in the very claim that Abraham and Ishmael met in person.
This last deviation goes to the heart of the question of the story'due south origin. Scholars have wondered which of these two versions could have been the original story. Some argued that the story's primary purpose is to fill out and make sense of the puzzling and problematic biblical story, which would imply a Jewish origin. Others fence that it provides important missing details to the Quranic story.[24]
The question hinges on whether the final personal reconciliation between father and son is an original role of the tale, cut by the Jewish version, or whether it is an addition, to make the story piece of work with the Quranic account of father and son edifice the Kaʿba together. The question remains a matter of contend, but either style, the cadre story of Abraham's visit establish resonance in both Jewish and Islamic tradition.
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