Ishmael ישמעאל
Avraham's elder son by Hagar, ancestor of the Arab tribes
Yishmael was born in 2034, when Avraham was eighty-six. An angel named him before his birth: «for the Lord has heard your affliction.» At thirteen he enters the covenant of circumcision together with his father.
After Yitzchak's birth Sarah sees him «making sport» and demands his expulsion. It grieves Avraham deeply, but God tells him to listen — and promises that a nation will come from him too. Dying of thirst in the desert, the boy is heard by God «where he is»: a person is judged as he is now, the sages say, not by what he will become.
He grew up an archer in the wilderness of Paran, married an Egyptian, and fathered twelve princes; his daughter married Esav. He died in 2171, aged 137.
The sages note that at Avraham's burial Yitzchak is named before Yishmael — the elder yielded to the younger, a sign that Yishmael had repented in his father's lifetime.