ishmael

3 definitions found

ishmael - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  Ishmael
      n 1: (Old Testament) the son of Abraham who was cast out after
           the birth of Isaac; considered the forebear of 12 Arabian
           tribes
      2: a person who is rejected (from society or home) [syn:
         outcast, castaway, pariah, Ishmael]

ishmael - Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary :

  Ishmael
  God hears. (1.) Abraham's eldest son, by Hagar the concubine
  (Gen. 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
  (Gen. 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" (Gen. 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 died, in connection
  with whose burial he once more for a moment reappears. On this
  occasion the two brothers met after being long separated. "Isaac
  with his hundreds of household slaves, Ishmael with his troops
  of wild retainers and half-savage allies, in all the state of a
  Bedouin prince, gathered before the cave of Machpelah, in the
  midst of the men of Heth, to pay the last duties to the 'father
  of the faithful,' would make a notable subject for an artist"
  (Gen. 25:9). Of the after events of his life but little is
  known. He died at the age of one hundred and thirty-seven years,
  but where and when are unknown (25:17). He had twelve sons, who
  became the founders of so many Arab tribes or colonies, the
  Ishmaelites, who spread over the wide desert spaces of Northern
  Arabia from the Red Sea to the Euphrates (Gen. 37:25, 27, 28;
  39:1), "their hand against every man, and every man's hand
  against them."
  
    (2.) The son of Nethaniah, "of the seed royal" (Jer. 40:8,
  15). He plotted against Gedaliah, and treacherously put him and
  others to death. He carried off many captives, "and departed to
  go over to the Ammonites."

ishmael - Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 :

  20 Moby Thesaurus words for "Ishmael":
     DP, castaway, declasse, derelict, displaced person, evictee, exile,
     expatriate, expellee, leper, outcast, outcast of society, outcaste,
     outlaw, pariah, persona non grata, social outcast,
     unacceptable person, undesirable, untouchable