Ishmael

4 definitions found

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  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}]



From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  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
  
  

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  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."
     

From Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary (late 1800's) [hitchcock]:

  Ishmael, God that hears