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Ishmael Was Excluded From the Covenant and an Angel Saved His Life

The Book of Jubilees says God did not cause Ishmael to approach Him. Then it records the angel who found Ishmael dying in the desert and saved him anyway.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. The Blunt Statement and What Follows It
  2. The Boy Crying Out Under the Shrub
  3. The Angel Who Came to the Excluded
  4. A Well, a Bow, the Desert of Paran

The Blunt Statement and What Follows It

The simplest version of the story makes Ishmael a footnote. Abraham had two sons, and God chose the other one. The Book of Jubilees, a Second Temple-era retelling of Genesis compiled in the second century BCE, does not simplify the story. It is unusually direct about the exclusion, and then it tells what happened next, and the two things together are harder to hold than either one alone.

In chapter 15, Jubilees states plainly: "For Ishmael and his sons and his brothers and Esau, the Lord did not cause to approach Him, and He chose them not." Not a silence on the subject. An explicit statement. God knew them. They were the children of Abraham, and God acknowledged them. But Israel was chosen, set apart, gathered from among all the children of men. The Jubilees author is not softening this. Ishmael is loved, acknowledged, and excluded. The tradition holds both without resolution.

The Boy Crying Out Under the Shrub

Chapter 17 tells a different story entirely, or the same story from its most uncomfortable angle.

Hagar had been expelled from Abraham's household for the second time, sent into the desert of Beersheba with Ishmael and a single skin of water. When the water ran out, she set the boy under a shrub and walked away so that she would not have to watch him die. The distance she put between them was exactly a bowshot. Not very far. Far enough that she could not hear him clearly.

What she did not know was that he was not silent. He was crying out to God. Not in resignation. Not in a formalized prayer. Crying out. The text distinguishes between the weeping of the child and the weeping of Hagar: she wept because she was a mother watching her son die. He cried out to God because he had not yet accepted that this was the end. And an angel of God, one of the holy ones, came to Hagar and asked why she wept.

The Angel Who Came to the Excluded

The question the angel asked was not unkind: "Why weepest thou, Hagar?" It was a direct address by name, which meant recognition. She was not dissolved into the wilderness. She was still Hagar, still a person the divine attention could locate and address. The angel told her: "arise, take the child, hold him in your hand, for God has heard his voice and has seen the child."

The phrase "God has heard his voice" is the explanation for the name Ishmael: "God hears." The name had been given before his birth, at the spring on the road to Shur when the angel found Hagar the first time and told her she was pregnant and what to call the son she would have. Now the name was being activated. God heard the voice of the child who had been excluded from the covenant. The angel came not because Ishmael was inside the covenant but because God heard him crying and responded to what God heard. The exclusion from covenant and the response to the cry are both true simultaneously, and Jubilees presents them both without harmonizing them into a single clean theological statement.

A Well, a Bow, the Desert of Paran

God opened Hagar's eyes and she saw a well of water. The well was presumably there before. She had not seen it. The angel did not create water in the desert. The angel directed her attention to what the despair of watching her son die had made invisible. She filled the skin and gave Ishmael drink, and they lived.

Jubilees follows the boy forward from there with a different kind of attention than it gave to the covenant question. Ishmael grew up in the desert of Paran. He became skilled with the bow. An Egyptian woman became his wife, and she bore him twelve sons. The names of those sons, the twelve princes Ishmael would have, are their own genealogy, their own presence in the world. They were not inside the covenant. They were not nothing.

IshmaelHagarAngelsWildernessCovenantJubilees
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From the tradition

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The texts this telling draws on, in full. Open a card to read inline, or expand it for a wider, quieter read.

Book of Jubilees 17:18Book of Jubilees

Hagar knew that feeling intimately.

We find her story, or at least a piece of it, echoed in the Book of Jubilees, an ancient Jewish text that retells and expands upon stories from the Hebrew Bible. This book, considered pseudepigrapha, writings whose authorship is falsely ascribed, offers fascinating details not found in the Torah itself.

Here, we catch up with Hagar after she's been cast out into the wilderness with her son, Ishmael. Can you imagine the fear, the thirst, the sheer desperation?

This teaching paints a vivid picture: "And an angel of God, one of the holy ones, said unto her, 'Why weepest thou, Hagar? Arise, take the child, and hold him in thine hand; for God hath heard thy voice, and hath seen the child.'"

It's a powerful moment. An angel, a messenger from the Divine, appears precisely when hope seems lost. The question, "Why weepest thou?" isn't accusatory, but rather an invitation to see beyond the immediate despair. It’s a reminder that even in the bleakest moments, God is present, listening.

And then comes the miracle: "And she opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water.." Just like that, salvation appears. It was there all along, perhaps, but she couldn't see it through her tears. She fills her bottle, gives her child water, and they are saved.

"and she arose and went towards the wilderness of Paran. And the child grew and became an archer, and God was with him.."

What a beautiful, understated line. "God was with him." Even in exile, even in the wilderness, Divine presence endures. Ishmael grows, thrives, and becomes skilled. He's not forgotten, not abandoned.

The narrative continues: "and his mother took him a wife from among the daughters of Egypt. And she bare him a son, and he called his name Nebaioth; for she said, 'The Lord was nigh to me when I called upon him.'"

Nebaioth, a new generation, a evidence of survival and faith. Hagar recognizes the Divine hand in their lives. “The Lord was nigh to me when I called upon him.” It’s a simple, profound statement of gratitude and acknowledgment. She called out, and she was heard.

Hagar's story, as told in the Book of Jubilees, is more than just a tale of survival. It's a reminder that even when we feel lost and alone, Divine presence can be found, sometimes in the most unexpected places – if only we open our eyes to see it. It's a comforting thought, isn't it?

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Book of Jubilees 15:36Book of Jubilees

There’s this fascinating ancient text, the Book of Jubilees, a work that retells the stories of Genesis and Exodus but with a very particular slant. It’s not part of the Hebrew Bible as we know it, but it offers incredible insights into how certain Jewish communities understood their relationship with God, with other nations, and with the divine realm.

In Chapter 15, we find a rather stark declaration: "For Ishmael and his sons and his brothers and Esau, the Lord did not cause to approach Him, and he chose them not.."

Ouch.

It continues, "...because they are the children of Abraham, because He knew them, but He chose Israel to be His people. And He sanctified it, and gathered it from amongst all the children of men.”

So, what’s going on here? Is this some kind of divine favoritism? Is God playing favorites?

Well, let's dig a little deeper. The Book of Jubilees isn’t suggesting that God doesn't care for other nations. Quite the opposite! It acknowledges that "there are many nations and many peoples, and all are His." But here's the kicker: "...and over all hath He placed spirits in authority to lead them astray from Him.”

Wait a minute. Angels leading people astray? It sounds wild. The idea here is that God delegates authority over the nations to various spiritual beings – angels, spirits, call them what you will. These beings, for whatever reason, might lead those nations away from a direct relationship with God. Think of it as different paths up the same mountain, perhaps, some more direct than others.

But what about Israel? This is where Jubilees throws us another curveball. "But over Israel He did not appoint any angel or spirit, for He alone is their ruler." No intermediaries. No delegated authority. Just God, directly guiding and watching over Israel. This is a pretty radical idea. God, in this view, takes a particularly hands-on role with the Jewish people. The text continues, stating He will "preserve them and require them at the hand of His angels and His spirits, and at the hand of all His powers in order.”

It’s a powerful statement about divine providence and a very specific understanding of the covenant between God and the Jewish people. It suggests a direct, unbroken connection. A unique responsibility, and a unique level of divine attention.

What does it mean for us today? Well, you could read it as a statement of chosenness, of special status. But maybe it’s more about responsibility. If God is directly involved in your life, guiding you without intermediaries, then you have a greater responsibility to live up to that connection, to act in a way that honors that divine attention.

It's a concept that invites introspection. Are we living up to our potential? Are we striving to connect with the Divine in a meaningful way? Perhaps the Book of Jubilees, with its ancient words, is still challenging us to consider the nature of our relationship with God, and the responsibilities that come with it.

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