•ISHMAEL

•ISH-BOSHETH man of shame or humiliation, the youngest of Saul’s four sons, and the only one who survived him (2 Samuel 2-4). His name was originally Eshbaal (1 Chronicles 8:33; 9:39). He was about forty years of age when his father and three brothers fell at the battle of Gilboa. Through the influence of Abner, Saul’s cousin, he was acknowledged as successor to the throne of Saul, and ruled over all Israel, except the tribe of Judah (over whom David was king), for two years, having Mahanaim, on the east of Jordan, as his capital (2 Samuel 2:9). After a troubled and uncertain reign he was murdered by his guard, who stabbed him while he was asleep on his couch at mid-day (2 Samuel 4:5-7); and having cut off his head, presented it to David, who sternly rebuked them for this cold-blooded murder, and ordered them to be immediately executed (9-12).‌

•ISHI my husband, a symbolical name used in Hos. 2:16 (See BAALI.)

•ISHMAEL God hears. (1.) Abraham’s eldest son, by Hagar the concubine (Genesis 16:15; 17:23). He was born at Mamre, when Abraham was eighty-six years of age, eleven years after his arrival in Canaan (16:3; 21:5). At the age of thirteen he was circumcised (17:25). He grew up a true child of the desert, wild and wayward. On the occasion of the weaning of Isaac his rude and wayward spirit broke out in expressions of insult and mockery (21:9, 10); and Sarah, discovering this, said to Abraham, “Expel this slave and her son.” Influenced by a divine admonition, Abraham dismissed Hagar and her son with no more than a skin of water and some bread. The narrative describing this act is one of the most beautiful and touching incidents of patriarchal life (Genesis 21:14-16). (See HAGAR.)

Ishmael settled in the land of Paran, a region lying between Canaan and the mountains of Sinai; and “God was with him, and he became a great archer” (Genesis 21:9-21). He became a great desert chief, but of his history little is recorded. He was about ninety years of age when his father Abraham

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